They were true dramatis persona and as such astraits of persons. They too had desires,

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
'hopes

6

and

fears, a life of affections, loves

and

hates,

triumphs and defeats.
'tial

Moreover, since they were essen-

to the support of the community, their activities

"and sufferings

made them,

in the imagination which
life

'dramatically revived the past, true sharers in the
1

of the community.

Although they were hunted, yet thev,
all to

permitted themselves after

be caueht. a»d""nence

they were friends and

allies.

ThevjfevGted themselves,

quite literally, to the sustenance

and well-being of the

community group to which they belonged.
produced not merely the multitude of
dwelling affectionately
tales

Thus were
and legends
and features

upon the

activities

of animals, but also those elaborate rites and cults which

made animals
divinities.

ancestors, heroes, tribal figure-heads and

I hope that I do not seem to you to have gone too
far afield from

my
me

topic, the origin of philosophies.

For

it

seems to

that the historic source of phi-

losophies cannot be understood except as

we

dwell, at

even greater length and in more
siders t'ons as these.

detail,

upon such con-

We

need to recognize that the

ordina.y consciousness of the ordinary
himself
is

man

left

to

a creature of desires rather than of

intel-

lectual study, inquiry or speculation.

Man

ceases to

be primarily actuated by hopes and fears, loves and
hates, only
is

when he

is

subjected to a discipline which
is,

foreign to

human

nature, which

from the stand-

6

1 RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSO^*
llv Natural^
,

point of natural man, artificial.

our Hf>Al 13»

they b<

our

scientific

a re wrBB'Ol"* I and philosophical books,

7

,.,

by men who have subjected themselves m u degree to intellectual discipline and cul thoughts are habitually reasonable. They
to check their fancies

^J"B

^
r

8j

by

facts,

and

to organize thej fa»

ideas logically rather than emotionally
.eallyr
i

and drama*

M

probably more of the time than is cJ ventionally acknowledged—they are aware of what are doing. They label these excursions, and do not cwK,

ng

_which

When
is

they do indulge

m reverie and day-dreanT

%
tend!
the

To
tfiit

Wild
be gu

fuse their results with objective experiences.

We

to judge others

by

ourselves,

and because

scientificfandl

jM)
mi'

philosophic books are composed by men in whom
reasonable, logical

I

and objective habit of mind
then

predomitffeii

nates, a similar rationality has been attributed by

to the average and ordinary man.

It

is

overloi
largely

that both
irrelevant

rationality

and irrationality are

m
rati

and episodical

in undisciplined humanjnature;

that

men

are governed by

thought, and that
actual facts, but
is

memory

is

memory rather than by not a rememb^Hg 0l
at Oi

association, suggestion, dramaticl

fancy. The standard used to measure the value of the| suggestions that spring up in the mind is not congruit y with fact but emotional congeniality. Do tli*y straralate

and reinforce

feeling,

and

fit

into the dramatic taleJ

Are they consonant with the prevailing
v
«-*v.

m0 od> and

can

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
of the community?
If

7

they be rendered into the traditional hopes and fears

we are

willing to take the

word

dreams with a certain

libejrality, it is

hardly too much

to say that man, save in his occasional times of actual

work and

struggle, lives in

a world of dreams, rather
is

than of facts, and a world of dreams that

organized
its

about desires whose success and frustration form
stuff.

To
as
if

treat the early beliefs

and traditions of mankind
explanation of the
is

they were attempts at

scientific

world, only erroneous and absurd attempts,

thus to

be guilty of a great mistake.

The
is

material out of

which philosophy

finally

emerges
is

irrelevant to science

and to explanation.
significant of

It

figurative, symbolic of fears

and hopes, made of imaginations and suggestions, not

a world of
It
is

objective fact intellectually

confronted.
science,

poetry and drama, rather than
scientific

and

is

apart from

truth and falsity,

rationality or absurdity of fact in the

same way

in

which poetry

is

independent of these things.

This original material has, however, to pass through
at least two stages before
it

becomes philosophy proper.

One

is

the stage in which

stories

and legends and

their

accompanying dramatizations are consolidated.
casual and transitory.

At

first the emotionalized records of experiences are largely

Events that excite the emotions

of an individual are seized upon and lived over in tale

8

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
But some
experiences are so frequeni

and pantomime.

and recurrent that they concern the group as a whole,

They are
sentative

socially generalized.
is

The piecemeal adventure
till it

of the single individual

built out

becomes repre-

and typical of the emotional life of the tribe, Certain incidents affect the weal aid woe of the group in its entirety and thereby get an exceptional emphasis and
elevation.

A

certain texture of tradition

is

built

up;

the story becomes a social heritage and possession;
the

pantomime develops into the stated

rite.

Tradition

thus formed becomes a kind of

norm

to

which individual

fancy and suggestion conform.
of imagination
is

An

abiding framewoflp

constructed.

A

communal way

of

conceiving

life

grows up into which individuals are

inducted by education.
definite

Both unconsciously and by
individual

social

requirement

memories

are
indi-

assimilated to

group memory or

tradition,

and

vidual fancies are accommodated to the
characteristic of a community.

body of

beliefs
fixated!

Poetry becomes

and systematized.

The
is

story becomes a social norm.
re-enacts an emotionally im-

The

original

drama which

portant experience

institutionalized into

a

cult.

Sug-

gestions previously free are hardened into doctrines.

—

The systematic and obligatory nature
is

of such doc-

trines

hastened and confirmed through conquests and

political consolidation.

As

the area of a government

is

extended, there

is

a definite motive for systematMng

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
and unifying
beliefs

9

once free and floating.

Aside from

natural accommodation and assimilation springing from
the fact of intercourse
stliaading,

and the needs of common underbeliefs in

there

is

often political necessity which leads

the ruler to centralize traditions and
to extend

order

and strengthen

his prestige
all

and authority.
other countries

Judea, Greece, Rome, and I presume

having a long history, present records of a continual

working over of earlier local
interests of

rites

and doctrines

in the

a wider

social unity

and a more

extensive

political power.

I shall ask you to assume with

me

that in this

way

the larger cosmogonies and cosmologies

of the race as well as the larger ethical traditions have
arisen.

Whether

this

is

literally so or not, it is
less

not
is

necessary to inquire,

much

to demonstrate.

It

enough for our purposes that under

social influences

there took place a fixing and organizing of doctrines

and
tion

cults

which gave general traits to the imagination
rules to conduct,

and general

and that such a consolida-

was a necessary antecedent to the formation of
this organization
belief is

any philosophy as we understand that term.
Although a necessary antecedent,
not the sole and

and generalization of ideas and principles of
sufficient

generator of philosophy.

There

is still

lacking the motive for logical system and

intellectual proof.

This we may suppose to be furnished
the

by the need of reconciling

moral rules and ideals em-

10

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
knowledge which gradually grows up.

bodied in the traditional code with the matter of fact
pdsitijrastic

For

man can
make

never be wholly the creature of suggestion

and fancy.
of the world.

The requirements
Although
it is

of continued existence

indispensable some attention to the actual facts

surprising

how

little

check
of

the environment actually puts
ideas, since

upon the formation

no notions are too absurd not to have been

accepted by some people, yet the environment does
enforce a certain

of extinction.

minimum of correctness under penalty That certain things are foods, that they
and
cut, that

are to be found in certain places, that water drowns,
fire

burns, that sharp points penetrate
fall

heavy things

unless

supported, that there

certain regularity in the changes of

is a day and night and

the alternation of hot and cold, wet and dry:

—such

propaic facts force themselves upon even primitive attention.

Some

of them are so obvious

and so important

Auguste Comte says somewhere that he knows of no savage people who had a God of weight although every other
that they have next to no fanciful context.
natural quality or force
ally there

may

have been

deified.

Gradu-

grows up a body of homely generalizations

preserving and transmitting the wisdom of the race

about the observed facts and sequences of nature.

This

knowledge

is

especially connected with industries, arts

and

crafts

where observation of materials and processes

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
is

11
is

required for successful action, and where action

so continuous

and regular that spasmodic magic
Extravagantly
fantastic

will

not

suffice.

notions

are

eliminated because they are brought into juxtaposition

with what actually happens.

The

sailor is

more

likely to

be given to what we now
his

term superstitions than say the weaver, because
activity is

more at the mercy of sudden change and

unforeseen occurrence.

But even

the sailor while he

may regard

the wind as the uncontrollable expression

of the caprice of

a great

spirit, will still

have to become

acquainted with some purely mechanical principles of

adjustment of boat,

sails

and oar to the wind.

Fire

may be

conceived as a supernatural dragon because some

time or other a swift, bright and devouring "flame called
before the mind's eye the quick-moving and dangerous
serpent.

But the housewife who tends
still

the

fire

and the

pots wherein food cooks will

be compelled to observe

certain mechanical facts of draft

and replenishment,
Still

and passage from wood to ash.

more

will the

worker in metals accumulate verifiable details about the
conditions and consequences of the operation of heat.

He may

retain for special and ceremonial occasions

traditional beliefs, but everyday familiar use will expel

these conceptions for the greater part of the time,
fire will

when

be to him of uniform and prosaic behavior,

controllable

by practical

relations of cause

and

effect.

12

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
the arts and crafts develop and become

As

more elabo-

and tested knowledge enlarges, and the sequences observed become more complex and of
rate, the

body of

positive

greater scope.

Technologies of this kind give that

common-sense knowledge of nature out of which science
takes
its origin.

They provide not merely a
tools,

collection

of positive facts, but they give expertness in dealing

with materials and

and promote the development of the experimental habit of mind, as soon as an art
can be taken away from the rule of sheer custom.

For a long time
and with
its

the imaginative

body of

beliefs closely

connected with the moral habits of a community group
emotional indulgences and consolations perside with the

sists side

by

growing body of matter of

fact knowledge.

Wherever possible they are interlaced.

At

other points, their inconsistencies forbid their interif

weaving, but the two things are kept apart as
different compartments.

in

Since one

is

merely superis

imposed upon the other their incompatibility

not

felt,

and there

is

no need of reconciliation.

In most cases,

the two kinds of mental products are kept apart because

they become the possession of separate social classes.

The

religious

and poetic

beliefs

having acquired a

defi-

nite social

and

political value

and function are

in the

keeping of a higher class directly associated with the
ruling elements in the society.

The workers and

crafts-

men who

possess the prosaic matter of fact knowledge

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
of knowledge is affected

18

are likely to occupy a low social status, and their kind

by the

social dislssteem enterin activities

tained for the

manual worker who engages
It doubtless

useful to the body.

was

this fact in

Greece

which in spite of the keenness of observation, the extraordinary power of logical reasoning and the great

freedom of speculation attained by the Athenian, post-

poned the general and systematic employment of the
experimental method.
Since the industrial craftsman
in social rank, his type of
it

was only just above the slave

knowledge and the method upon which
lacked prestige and authority.
Nevertheless, the time came

depended

when matter of fact
it

knowledge increased to such bulk and scope that

came into
spirit

conflict

with not merely the detail but with the
traditional

and temper of

and imaginative

beliefs.

Without going into the
there
is

vexed, question of
this is just

how and why,
in

no doubt that

what happened

what we term the sophistic movement

in Greece, within

which originated philosophy proper in the sense in which the western world understands that term.
fact that the sophists

had a bad name given

The them by
able

Plato and Aristotle, a
to shake
strife
off,
is

name they have never been

evidence that with the sophists the

between the two types of belief was the emphatic

Ining,

and that the

conflict

had a disco disconcerting
religioufe beliefs ious

effect

upon the traditional system of

and the

16

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
by becoming saturated with
in short
its ideals

the country,

and

customs

;

by becoming

a practical adept in the

Greek tradition as to

fighting.

To

attempt to derive

abstract rules from a comparison of native ways of over fighting with the enemies' ways is to begin to go
to the enemies' traditions
false to one's

and gods:

it is

to begin to be

own country.
by the
positivistic

Such a point of view vividly realized enables us to
appreciate the antagonism aroused
point of view when
tional.
it

came into

conflict with the tradir

The

latter

and

loyalties; it

was deeply rooted in social habits was surcharged with the moral aims

for which
lived.

men lived and the" moral rules by which they Hence it was as basic and as comprehensive as
and
palpijfcated
life in

life itself,

with the

warm glowing

colors

of the
being.

community

which men realized their own

In contrast, the positivistic knowledge was conutilities,

cerned with merely physical

and lacked

the

ardent associations of belief hallowed

by

sacrifices of

ancestors and worship of contemporaries.
its

Because

of

limited

and concrete character

it

was dry, hard,
like that of

cold.

Yet the more acute and active minds,

Plato himself, could no longer be content to accept,

along with the conservative citizen of the time, the
old beliefs in the old way.

The growth

of positive

knowledge and of the

critical,

inquiring spirit under-

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
mined these
in

17
in

their old

form.

The advantages
were
all

definiteness, in accuracy, in verifiability

on the

side of the

new knowledge.
said Socrates,
is

Tradition was noble in
in foundation.

aim and scope, but uncertain
questioned
life,

The unto be lived
is

was not one

fit

by man, who
rational being.
of things,

a questioning being because he

a

Hence he must search out the reason and not accept them from custom and political

authority.

What was to be done?

Develop a method of

rational investigation

and proof which should place the

essential elements of traditional belief

upon an unshak-

able basis

;

develop a method of thought and knowledge

which while purifying tradition should presejevCits

moral and social values unimpaired; nay, by purifying them, add to their power and authority.
it in

To put

a word, that which had rested upon custom was

to be restored, resting

the past, but

no longer upon the habits of upon the very metaphysics of Being and
Metaphysics
is

the Universe.
as

a substitute for custom

the source

and gujtcantor of higher moral and
is

social values

—that
of

the leading theme of the classic

philosophy
Aristotle

Europe,

as
let

evolved

by Plato

and

—a philosophy,

us always recall, renewed

and restated by the Christian philosophy of Medieval
Europe.

Out of

this situation emerged, if I mistake not, the

entire tradition regarding the function

and

office

of

18

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
till

philosophy which

the very recently has controlled

western| systematic and constructive philosophies of the world. If I am right in my main thesis that the origin
«f philosophy lay in an attempt to reconcile the two
different types of mental product, then the

key

is

in

our hands as to the main traits of subsequent philosophy
so far as that was not of a negative
kind.

and heterodox
in

In the

first

place, philosophy did not develop

an unbiased way from .an open and unprejudiced origin. It had its task cut out for it from the start. It had a
mission to perform, and
mission.
it

was sworn in advance to that
essential

It

had to extract the

moral kerneM
So-

out of the threatened traditional beliefs of the past.

far so good; the work was critical and in the interests

of the only true conservatism

—that which

will conserve

and not waste the values wrought out by humanity. But it was also precommitted to extracting this moral
essence in
liefs.

a

spirit conbenial to the spirit of past be-

The

association with imagination and with social
It

authority was too intimate to be deeply disturbed.

was not possible to conceive of the content of social institutions in any form radically different from that in
which they had existed in the past.
It became the

work of philosophy to justify on rationaTgrounds~tKe
spiritT^though not the form, of accepted beliefs and
traditional customs.

The

resulting philosophy seemed radical

enough and

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
difference of

19

even dangerous to the average Athenian because of the

form and method.

In the sense of pruning

away excrescences and
average citizen were

eliminating factors which to the

all

one with the basic

beliefs, it

was

radical.

But looked at

in the perspective of history

and

in contrast with different types of

thought which
it is

developed later in different social environments,

now easy

to see

how profoundly,

after

all,

Plato and

Aristotle reflected the meaning of Greek tradition and
habit, so that their writings remain, with the writings

of the great dramatists, the best introduction of a stu-

dent into the innermost ideals and aspirations of distinctively
art,

Greek

life.

Without Greek

religion,

Greek

Greek

civic life, their

philosophy would have been

impossible; while the effect of that science

upon which

the philosophers most prided themselves turns out to

have been superficial and
spirit of

negligible.

This apologetic

philosophy

is

even more apparent when Medie-

val Christianity about the twelfth century sought for a

systematic rational presentation of

itself

and made

use of classic philosophy, especially that of Aristotle, to
justify itself to reason.

A

not unsimilar occurrence

characterizes the chief philosophic systems of
in the early nineteenth century,

Germany

when Hegel assumed the
of rational idealism the

task of justifying in the

name

doctrines and institutions which were menaced

by

the

new

spirit of science

and popular government.

The

20
result

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
has been that the great systems have not been
spirit

free

from party

exercised in behalf

of pre-^

Since they have at the same time conceived beliefs. processed complete intellectual independence and rationality, the result

has been too often to impart to philosoof insincerity,
all

phy an element

the more infeiaious_be-

cause wholly unconscious on the part of those who
sustained philosophy.

And

this brings us to a. second trait of philosophy
its origin.

springing from

Since

it

aimed at a rational

justification of things that

had been previously accepted

because of their emotional congeniality and social prestige, it

had to make much of the apparatus of reason
Because of the lack of intrinsic rationality
which
it dealt, it

and proof.

in the matters with

leaned over back-

ward, so to speak, in parade of logical form.

In dealing

with matters of fact, simpler and rougher ways of

demonstration

may

be resorted

to.

It

is

enough, so to
it

say, to produce the fact in question

and point to

the fundamental form of
it

all

demonstration.

But when

comes to convincing men of the truth of doctrines

which are no longer to be accepted upon the say-so of custom and social authority, but which also are not
capable of empirical verification, there
is

no recourse

save to magnify the signs of rigorous thought

and

rigid

demonstration.
stract
definition

Thus
and

arises that

appearance of abargumentation

ultra-scientific

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
which rebels so
been one of

21

many from

philosophy but which has
//

its chief

attractions to its devotees.

At

the worst, this has reduced philosophy to a show

of elaborate terminology, a hair-splitting logic ,
fictitious

and a

devotion to the mere external forms of com-

prehensive and minute demonstration.
best, it

Even at the

has tended to produce an overdeveloped attachits

ment to system for
claim to certainty.

own

sake,

and an over-pretentious

Bishop Butler declared t hat prob a-

bUity_2sJthejruideofJife ; but few philosophers have been

courageous enough to ajvow that philosophy can be
satisfied

with anything that

is

merely probable.

The

customs dictated by
finality

tradition

and

desire

had claimed
in

and immutability.

They had

claimed to give

certain
its

and unvarying laws of conduct.

Very early

history philosophy

made pretension
this

to a similar

conclusiveness,

and something of

temper has clung
insisted

to classic philosophies ever since.

They have

that they were more scientific than the sciences
indeed, philosophy
special sciences

—

that,

was necessary because after
in

all

the

fail

attaining final and complete

truth.

There have been a few
" and that
bias
its chief

tured to assert, as did
is

dissenters who have venWilliam James, that " philosophy'

vision

function

is

to free men's

minds from

and prejudice and to enlarge their

perceptions of the world about them.

But

in the

main

philosophy has set

up much more

ambitious pretensions.

22

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
say frankly that philosophy can proffer nothing but
these

To

hypotheses, and that

hypotheses are of value
life

only as they render men's minds more sensitive to

about them, would seem like a negation of philosophy
itself.

In the third place, the body of

beliefs dictated

by
in-

desire and imagination and developed under the
fluence of

communal authority

into an authoritative
It was, so

tradition,

was pervasive and comprehensive.
all

to speak, omnipresent in
life.

the details of the group
its

Its pressure
It

was unr vtting and

influence

universal.

was then probably inevitable that the

rival principle, reflective thought, should

aim at a
It

simi-

lar universality

and comprehensiveness.

would be
tradi-

as inclusive

and far-reaching metaphysically as

tion had been socially.

Now

there was just one

way

in which this pretension could be accomplished in con-

junction with a claim of complete logical system and
certainty.

All philosophies of the classic type have
fixed

made
the

a

and fundamental One
of

distinction between

two realms
re-

of existence.
ligious

these

corresponds to

and supernatural world
its

of popular tradition,

which in

metaphysical rendering became the world
Since the final source

of highest and ultimate reality.

and sanction of
duct
in

all

community

life

important truths and rules of conhad been found in superior and

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
unquestioned
religious
beliefs,

23

so

the

absolute

and

supreme reality of philosophy afforded the only sure
guaranty of truth about empirical matters, and the
sole

rational guide to proper social institutions and indi-

vidual behavior.

Qy-er,

against this absolute and noume-'

nal reality which could be apprehended only by the

systematic discipline of philosophy

itself

stoo d the ordi-

nary empirical,

relatively real,

phenomenal world of
this

everyday experience.

It

was with

world that the
connected.

practical affairs and utilities of
It was to
this imperfect

men were

and perishing world that mat-

ter of fact, positivistic science referred.

This

is

the trait which, in
classic

my

opinion, has affected

most deeply the
philosophy.
office

notion about the nature of
itself

Philosophy has (arrogated to

the

of demonstrating the existence of a transcendent*

absolute or inner reality and of revealing to

man

the

nature and features of this ultimate and higher reality.
It has therefore claimed that it

was
is

in possession of

a

higher organ of knowledge than

employed by posi-

tive science and ordinary practical experience, and that it is marked by a superior dignity and

importance

—

a

claim which

is

undeniable

if

philoso-

phy

leads

man

to proof and intuition of a Reality belife

yond that open to day-by-day
sciences.

and the special

This claim has, of course, been denied by various

24

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
But
and
for the most part
sceptical.

philosophers from time to time.
these denials have been agnostic

They

have contented themselves with asserting tb/at absolute

and ultimate reality

is

beyond hu man kern

But

they
be

have not ventured to deny that such Reality would were within the reach

the appropriate sphere for the exercise of philosophic

knowledge provided only

it

of

human
arisen.

intelligence.

Only comparatively recently
office

has

another conception of the proper

of philosophy be devoted
to
in

This course of lectures

will

setting forth this different conception of philosophy

some of

its

main contrasts to what

this lecture has

termed the classic conception.
referred to only
It
is

At

this point, it

can

be

by anticipation and

in

cursory fashion.

implied in the account which has been given of the
of philosophy

origin

out of the background of an

authoritative tradition; a tradition originally dictated

by man's imagination working under the influence of love and hate and in the interest of emotional excitement and
it

satisfaction.

Common

frankness requires that

be stated that this account of the origin of philoso-

phies claiming to deal with absolute

Being in a

sys-

tematic

way has been given with malice prepense. It me that this genetic method of approach is a more effective way of undermining this type of philoseems to
sophic theorizing than any attempt at logical refutation could be.

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
If this lecture succeeds in leaving in

25

your minds as a

reasonable hypothesis the idea that philosophy origi-

nated not out of intellectual material, but out of social

and emotional material,

it will

also succeed in leaving

with you a changed attitude toward traditional philosophies.
in

They

will

be viewed from a new angle and placed

a new

light.

New

questions about them will be
will

aroused and new standards for judging them
suggested.
If

be

any one

will

commence without mental

reservations

to study the history of philosophy not as an isolated

thing but as a chapter in the development of civilization

and culture ;

if

one will connect the story of philoso-

phy with a study of anthropology, primitive life, the history of religion, literature and social institutions, it confidently asserted that he will reach his own indeill

pendent judgment as to the worth of the account which
has been presented today.

Considered in this way, the

history of philosophy will take on a new significance.

What

is

lost

from the standpoint of would-be

science

is

regained from the standpoint of humanity.

Instead

of the disputes of rivals about the nature of reality,

we

have the scene of human clash of social purpose and
aspirations.

Instead of impossible attempts to tran-

scend experience, we have the significant record of the
efforts of

men

to formulate the things of experience to

which they are most deeply and passionately attached.

26

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

Instead of impersonal and purely speculative endeavors
to contemplate as remote beholders the nature of abso-

we have a living picture of the choice of thoughtful men about what they would have
lute things-in-themselves,
life

to be,

and

to

what ends they would have men shape

their intelligent activities.

Any
definite

one of you
will

who

arrives at such a view of past

philosophy

of necessity be led to entertain a quite

conception of the scope and aim of future

philosophizing.

He

will inevitably be

committed to

the

notion that what philosophy has been unconsciously,^

without knowing or intending
cover,
it

it,

and, so to speak, under
deliberately.

must henceforth be openly and

When

it is

acknowledged that under disguise of dealing

with ultimate reality, philosophy has been occupied with
the precious values embedded in social traditions, that
it

has sprung from a clash of social ends and from a
with incompatible cons een

conflict of inherited institutions

temporary tendencies,
futurejghilosophy
is

it

wil l be

that the_taskj»f

to clarify men's ideas as ±o_Jthe

-social andjmoral strifes of their

own day.

Its

aim

is

to

become so far as

is

humanly

possible

an organ for deal-

ing with these conflicts.
tiously unreal

That which may be pretenformulated in metaphysical

when

it is

distinctions becomes intensely significant

when connect* d
its

with the drama of the struggle of social beliefs and
ideals.

Philosophy which surrenders

somewhat

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY

27

barren monopoly of dealings with Ultimate and Absolute Reality will find a compensation in enlightening

the moral forces which move mankind and in contributing to the aspirations of

men to

attain to a more ordered

and

intelligent happiness.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS IN PHILOSOPHICAL RECONSTRUCTION
Fkancis Baco n of the Elizabethan age
forerunner of the spirit of modern
in
is is

the great
slight

life.

Though

accomplishment, as a prophet of new tendencies he

an outstanding figure of the world's intellectual

life.

Like

many another prophet

he suffers

from confused
is

intermingling of old and new.

What

most page

signifi-

cant in him has been rendered more or
the later course of events.

less familiar

by

But page

after

is filled

with matter which belongs to the past from which

Bacon thought he had escaped.
ceives his

Caught between

these
re-

two sources of easy disparagement, Bacon hardly
while he

due as the real~Tbunder of modern thought,
is

praised for merits which scarcely belong

to him, such as an alleged authorship of the specific

methods of induction pursued by science.

What

makes

Bacon memorable
world caught and

is

that breezes blowing from a new

filled his sails

and stirred him to ad-

venture in new seas.

He

never himself discovered the

land of promise, but he proclaimed the

new goal and

by

faith he descried its features

from

afar.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
The main
traits of his

29

thought put before our mind

the larger features of a new spirit which was at work in

They may suggest the social and historical forces out of which the new spirit was born. The best known aphorism of Bacon
causing intellectual reconstruction.
is

that Knowledge

is

Power

.

Judged by

this

pragmatic

criterion,

he condemned the great body of learning then

extant as mof-knowledge, as pseudo- and pretentious-

knowledge.

For

it

did not give power.

It was otiose,

not operative.

In his most extensive discussion he

classified the learning of his

day under three

heads,"^

delicate,

fantastic and contentious.

Under

delicate

learning, he included the literary learning which through

the influence of the revival of ancient languages and
literatures occupied so important a place in the intellec-

tual life of the Renaissance.

Bacon's condemnation

is

the

more

effective

because he himself was a master of

the classics and of all the graces and refinements which
this literary

study was intended to convey.

In sub-

stance he anticipated most of the attacks which educational reformers since his time have

made upon

one-

sided literary culture.

It contributed not to
It

power but

to ornament and decoration.
luxurious.

was ostentatious and
over Europe in the of

By

fantastic learning he meant the quasirife all

magical science that was so
sixteenth

century

—wild
this

developments

alchemy,

astrology, etc.

Upon

he poured his greatest vials

SO

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
evils.

00 of wrath because the corruption of the g
vain, but Delicate learning was idle and knowledge. fantastic learning aped the form of true knowledgeIt laid hold of the true principle and aim of

worst of

control of natural forces.
tions

But

it

neglected the condi-

and methods by which alone such knowledge could be obtained, and thus deliberately led men astray. For our purposes, however, what he says about conis

tentious learning

the most important.

For by

this, he

means the traditional science which had come down, in scanty and distorted measure to be sure, from antiquity
through scholasticism.
It
is

called contentious both

because of the logical method used and the end to which
it

was put.

In a certain sense

it

aimed at power, but

power over other men in the
sect or person, not

interest of

some

class or
in the

power over natural forces

common
relsome,

interest of

all.

Bacon's conviction of the quarscholarship

self-displaying character of the

which had come down from antiquity was of course not
so

much due

to Greek science itself as to the degenerate

heritage of scholasticism in the fourteenth century,

when philosophy had
ness

fallen into the

hands of disputa-

tious theologians, full of hair-splitting argumentative-

and quirks and tricks by which to win victory over
else.

somebody

But Bacon
Aristotelian

also

brought
itself.

his

charge against the
rigorous forms
it

method

In

its

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
aimed at demonstration, and in
persuasion.
its

31

milder forms at

But both demonstration and persuasion aim at conquest of mind rather than of nature. Moreover they both assume that some one
session of
is
is

already in pos-

a truth or a

belief,
else,

and that the only problem
or to teach.

to convince some one

In contrast,

his

new method had an exceedingly
existent,

slight opinion of the

amount of truth already
the extent
It would be

and a
still

lively sense

of

and importance of truths
a

to be attained.

logic of discovery, not a logic of argu-

mentation, proof and persuasion.
logic even at its best

To

Bacon, the old

was a logic for teaching the already
discipling.

known, and teaching meant indoctrination,
It

was an axiom of Aristotle that only that which was

already known could be learned, that growth in knowl-

edge consisted simply in bringing together a universal
truth of reason and a particular truth of sense which

had previously been noted separately.

In any case,

learning meant growth, of knowledge, and growth belongs in the region of becoming, change, and hence
inferior to possession of
is

knowledge in the

syllogistic

self-revolving manipulation of

what was already known

—demonstration.
In contrast with this point of view, Bacon eloquently
proclaimed the superiority of discovery of new facts

and truths to demonstration of the

old.
is

Now

there

is

only one road to discovery, and that

penetrating in-

32

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
Scientific principle*
lie

quiry into the secrets of nature.

on the surface of nature. They are hidden, and must be wrested from nature by an active and elaborate technique of inquiry. Neither logical

and laws do not

reasoning nor the passive accumulation of any number
of observations
suffices

—which the ancients

called

experience-

to lay hold of them.

Active experimentation

must force the apparent facts of nature into forms different to those in which they familiarly present themselves;
selves,

and thus make them tell the truth about themas torture may compel an unwilling witness to re-

veal

what he has been concealing.

Pure reasoning

as a

means of arriving at truth
a web out of himself.
but
it is

only

is like the spider who spins The web is orderly and elaborate, a trap. The passive accumulation of

experiences
the ant

—the

traditional empirical

method

—

is like

who

busily runs about

heaps of raw materials.

and collects and piles up True method, that which Bacon

would usher

in, is

comparable to the operations of the

bee who, like the ant, collects material

from the external

world, but unlike that industrious creature attacks and
modifies the collected stuff in order to

make

it

yield its

hidden treasure.

Along with

this contrast

between subjugation of na-

ture and subjection of other minds and the elevation
of a method of discovery above a method of demonstration,

went Bacon's sense of progress as the aim and

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
test of genuine knowledge.

SS

According to

his criticisms,

the classic logic, even in its Aristotelian form, inevitably

played into the hands of inert conservatism.

For

in

accustoming the mind to think of truth as already

known,

it

habituated men to

fall

back on the

intellectual

attainments of the past, and to accept them without
critical

scrutiny.

Not merely

the medieval but the

renaissance mind tended to look back to antiquity as a

Golden Age of Knowledge, the former relying upon
sacred scriptures, the latter upon secular literatures.

And

while this attitude could not fairly be charged
felt,

up

against the classic logic, yet Bacon
justice, that

and with

any

logic which identified the technique

of knowing with demonstration of truths already possessed

confines the
ing.

by the mind, blunts the spirit of investigation and mind within the circle of traditional learn-

Such a logic could not avoid having for its salient features definition of what is already known (or thought
to be known),

and

its

systematization according to

recognized canons of orthodoxy.

A

logic of discovery

on the other hand looks to the future.
it

Received truthj

regards critically as something to be tested by new"

experiences rather than as something to be dogmatically

taught and obediently received.

Its chief interest in

even the most carefully tested ready-made knowledge
is

the use which

may

be

made of

it

in further inquiries

34

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
discoveries.

and

Old truth has

its

chief value in assist-

ing the detection of new truth.
tion of the nature of induction

Bacon's own apprecia-

was highly

defective.
the
the

acute sense that science means invasion of unknown, rather than repetition in logical form of

But

his

already known, makes him nevertheless the father of induction. Endless and persistent uncovering of facts

and principles not known
induction.

—such

is

the true spirit
is

of

Continued progress in knowledge

the only

sure
into

way

of protecting old knowledge from degeneration

dogmatic doctrines received on authority, or from

imperceptible decay into superstition and old wives'
tales.

Ever-renewed progress

is

to

Bacon

the test as well

as the aim of genuine logic.

Where, Bacon constantly
fruits,

demands, where are the works, the
logic?

of the older
evils of
life,

What

has

it

done to ameliorate the

to rectify defects, to improve conditions?

Where

are

the inventions that justify
of truth?

its

claim to be in possession
in

Beyond the victory of man over man

law courts, diplomacy and political administration, they are nil. One had to turn from admired " sciences "
to despised arts to find works, fruits, consequences of
value to

human kind through power over natural

forces.
fitful,

And

progress in the arts was as yet intermittent,

accidental.

A true

logic or technique of inquiry

would

make advance

in the industrial, agricultural

and medi-

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
cal arts continuous, cumulative

85
sys-

and deliberately

tematic.
If

we take

into account the supposed

body of ready-

made knowledge upon which learned men rested in supine acquiescence and which they recited in parrotlike chorus, we find it consists of two parts. One
of these parts is
tors,

made up

of the errors of our ancesinto pseudo-

musty with antiquity and organized

through the use of the classic logic. Such " truths " are in fact only the systematized mistakes
science

and prejudices of our ancestors.
nated in accident
;

Many

of them origi-

many

in class interest

and

bias, per-

petuated by authority for this very reason

—a

consid-

eration which later actuated Locke's attack upon the
doctrine of innate ideas.
beliefs

The

other portion of accepted

comes from instinctive tendencies of the human
it

mind that give

a dangerous bias until counteracted
critical logic.

by a conscious and

The mind

of

man

spontaneously assumes greater sim-

plicity, uniformity and unity among phenomena than It follows superficial analogies and actually exists.

jumps to conclusions
tails

;

it

overlooks the variety of de-

and the existence of exceptions.

Thus

it

weaves a

web

of purely internal origin which it imposes

upon

nature.

What had been

termed science in the past con-

sisted of this humanly constructed and imposed web.

Men

looked at the work of their own minds and thought

86

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
They were
wor-

they were seeing realities in nature.
shipping, under the

name

of science, the idols of their

own making.
sisted of these

So-called science and philosophy con-

"anticipations" of nature.

And

the

worst thing that could be said about traditional logic

was that instead of saving man from

this

natural source

of error, it had, thlough attributing to nature a false
rationality of unity, simplicity

and generality, sanc-

tioned these sources of delusion.
logic

The

office

of the new
itself: to

would be to protect the mind against
it

teach

to undergo a patient

and prolonged apprenand particularity

ticeship to fact in its infinite variety

to obey nature intellectually in order to
practically.

command

it

Such was the significance of the new
tool or

logic
in

—the new
Certain

organon of learning, so named

express opposition to the organon of Aristotle.

other

important oppositions are implied.

Aristotle thought of reason as capable of solitary com-

munion with rational truth.
celebrated saying that
Intelligence,
cal.

The counterpart of
a political animal,
is

his

man

is

that

Nous,

is

neither animal,

human nor

politi-

It

is

divinely unique

and

self-enclosed.

To
by

Bacon,

error had been produced and perpetuated
fluences,

social in-

and truth must be discovered by
little

social agencies

organized for that purpose.
vidual can do

Left to himself, the indiis

or nothing; he
self-spun

likely to

become

involved in his

own

web of misconceptions.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
The great need
search, whereby
is

37

the organization of co-operative recollectively

men attack nature
is

and the

work of inquiry

carried on continuously

tion to generation.

from generaBacon even aspired to the rather
might be discounted, and

absurd notion of a method so perfected that differences
in natural

human

ability

all

be put on the same level in production of new facts

and new truths.
tive side of his

Yet

this absurdity

was only the nega-

great positive prophecy of a combined

and co-operative pursuit of science such as characterizes
our own day.
In view of the picture he draws in his

New

Atlantis of a State organized for collective inquiry,
his exaggerations.

we readily forgive him
lective; the

Power over nature was not to be
Empire, as he says, of
substituted for the

individual but col-

Man

over Nature,

Empire of

Man

over Man.

Let us

employ Bacon's own words with their variety of picturesque metaphor " Men have entered into the desire
:

of learning

and knowledge,
if

.

.

.

seldom sincerely to

give a true account

of their gift of reason, to the benefit

and use of men, but as

they sought in knowledge a

couch whereon to rest a searching and wandering spirit
or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk

up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower for a proud mind to raise itself upon or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for
;

profit

and

sale

;

and not a rich storehouse for the glory

38

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
relief of

of the creator and the

man's estate."

When
for an
think-

William James called

Pragmatism a New Name

Old

Way

of Thinking, I do not

know that he was

ing expressly of Francis Bacon, but so far as concerns the spirit and atmosphere of the pursuit of knowledge,

Bacon may be taken

as the

prophet of a pragmatic
misconceptions of
its

conception of knowledge.
spirit would be avoided

Many

if his

emphasis upon the

social

factor in both the pursuit and the end of knowledge were
carefully obsej-ved.

This somewhat over-long resume of Bacon's ideas has
not been gone into as a matter of historic retrospect.

The summary

is

rather meant to put before our minds

an authentic document of the new philosophy which may
bring into relief the social causes of intellectual revolution.

Only a sketchy account can be here attempted,

but

it

may

be of some assistance even barely to remind
industrial, political and

you of the direction of that
religious

change upon which Europe was entering.
the industrial side,
it is

Upon

impossible, I think,

to exaggerate the influence of travel, exploration and

new commerce which fostered a romantic sense of adventure into novelty
beliefs
; ;

loosened the hold of traditional

created a lively sense of new worlds to be investi-

gated and subdued
ture, commerce,

produced new methods of manufacbanking and finance; and then reacted
;

everywhere

to

stimulate

invention,

and

to

intro-

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
into science.

39

duce positive observation and active experimentation

The Crusades,

the revival of the profane

learning of antiquity and even more perhaps, the contact with the advanced learning of the
the increase of

Mohammedans,

commerce with Asia and Africa, the

introduction of the lens, compass and gunpowder, the
finding

and opening up of North and South America

most significantly called The some of the obvious external
most fruitful and
logical

New World
facts.
is

—

these are

Contrast between
always, I think,

peoples and races previously isolated
influential for

change when psychorein-

and industrial changes coincide with and

force each other.

Sometimes people undergo emotional

change, what might almost be called a metaphysical
change, through intercourse.

The

inner set of the mind,
altered.

especially in religious matters,
times, there
is

is

At

other

a lively exchange of goods, an adoption

of foreign tools

and

devices,

an imitation of

alien habits

of clothing, habitation and production of commodities.

One of

these changes

is,

so to speak, too internal

and the

other too external to bring about a profound intellectual development. But when the creation of a new mental
attitude
falls

together with extensive material and

economic changes, something significant happens.

This coincidence of two kinds of change was, I take it, characteristic of the new contacts of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.

Clash of customs and traditional

40
beliefs

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
dispelled

mental inertia and sluggishness;

it

aroused a lively curiosity as to different The actual adventure of travel and exploration purged
the mind of fear of the strange
territories

and new

ideas.

and unknown: as new

geographically and commercially speaking

were opened up, the mind was opened up.

New contacts
;

more contacts the appetite for novelty and discovery grew by what it fed upon. Conservative adherence to old beliefs and methods
promoted the desire for
still

underwent a steady attrition with every new voyage

new parts and every new report of foreign ways. The mind became used to exploration and discovery. It
into

found a delight and interest in the revelations of
novel

the

and the unusual which

it

no longer took

in what
of

was old and customary.

Moreover, the very act

exploration, of expedition, the process of enterprising

adventure into the remote, yielded a peculiar joy and
thrill.

This psychological change was essential to the birth
of the

new point of view
it

in science

and philosophy.

Yet alone

could hardly have produced the

new method

of knowing.

But
life

positive changes in the habits and

purposes of

gave objective conformation and sup-

port to the mental change.
channels in which the

They

also determined the
exercise.

new

spirit

found

New-

found wealth, the gold from the Americas and new articles of consumption and enjoyment, tended to wean men

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
cal,

41

from preoccupation with the metaphysical and theologi-

and to turn their minds with newly awakened and
this life.

in-

terest to the joys of nature

New

material

resources

and new markets

in

America and India under-

mined the old dependence upon household and manual
production for a local and limited market, and generated
quantitative, large scale production

by means

of steam

for foreign and expanding markets.
transit,

Capitalism, rapid

and production for exchange against money and

for profit, instead of against goods and for consumption, followed.

This cursory and superficial reminder of vast and
complicated events

may

suggest the mutual interde-

pendence of the
revolution.

scientific revolution

and the

industrial
is

Upon

the one hand, modern industry

so

much applied

science.

No amount

of desire to

make

money, or to enjoy new commodities, no amount of mere
practical energy and enterprise, would have effected the

economic transformation of the last few centuries and
generations.

Improvements
biological

in mathematical, physical,

chemical
Business

and

science

were

prerequisites.

men through
new

engineers of different sorts, have
insights gained

laid hold of the

by

scientific

men

into the hidden energies of nature,

and have turned

them to account.

The modern
all

mine, factory, railway,

steamship, telegraph,

of the appliances and equipscienti-

ment of production, and transportation, express

42
fie

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
knowledge.

They would continue unimpaired

even

if

the ordinary pecuniary accompaniments of economic

activity were radically altered.

In short, through the

intermediary

of

invention,

Bacon's

watchword that

knowledge

is

power and his dream of continuous empire

over natural forces by means of natural science have

been actualized.

The

industrial revolution

by steam

and

electricity is the reply to

Bacon's prophecy.

On

the other hand, it

is

equally true that the needs

of modern industry have been tremendous stimuli to
scientific

investigation.

The demands

of progressive

production and transportation have set new problems
to inquiry; the processes used in industry have suggested new experimental appliances and operations in
science; the wealth rolled

up

in business has to

some

ex-

tent been diverted to

endowment of research.

The

undis-

interrupted and pervasive interaction of scientific

covery and industrial application has fructified both

and industry, and has brought home to the contemporary mind the fact that the gist of scientific
science

knowledge
facts,

is

control of natural energies.

These four
control

natural science, experimentation,

and

progress have been inextricably bound

up

together.

"That up to the present the application of the newer methods and results has influenced the means of life
rather than
its

ends

;

or, better put, that

human

aims

have so far been affected in an accidental rather than

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
in

43

an intelligently directed way, signifies that so far the change has been technical rather than human and moral,
it

that

has been economic rather than adequately

social.

Put

in the

language of Bacon,

this

means that
in obtaining

while\

we have been reasonably successful

com-

mand

by means of science, our science is not yet such that this command is systematically and preeminently applied to the relief of human estate. Such
of nature applications occur and in great numbers, but they are
incidental,

sporadic and external.

And
For
it

this

limitare-

tion defines the specific

problem of philosophical

construction at the present time.

emphasizes

the larger social deficiencies that require intelligent
diagnosis, and projection of aims
It
is

and methods.

hardly necessary to remind you however that
political

marked

changes have already followed upon the
its

new

science

and

industrial applications,

and that

in

so far some directions of social development have at
least been

marked

out.

The growth

of the

new technique

of industry has everywhere been followed

by

the fall of

feudal institutions, in which the social pattern

was

formed in agricultural occupations and military pursuits. Wherever business in the modern sense has gone,
the tendency has been to transfer power from land to
financial capital,

from the country to the

city,

from the

farm to factory, from social titles based on personal allegiance, service and protection, to those based on

44

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
and exchange of goods.

control of labor

The change

in the political centre of gravity has resulted in emanci-

pating the individual from bonds of class and custom and in producing a political organization which depends
less

upon superior authority and more upon voluntary
as

choice.
less

Modern states, in other words, are regarded divine, and more as human works than they
less

used to be;

as necessary manifestations of some
con-

supreme and over-ruling principles, and more as
trivances of

men and women

to realize their

own

desires.
is

The contract theory of the
theory whose falsity
philosophically

origin of the state

a

may

easily be demonstrated both

and

historically.

Nevertheless

this

theory has had great currency and influence.
it

In form,

men voluntarily got made a compact with one another to observe certain laws and to submit to certain authority and in that way brought the state and the relation of
stated that some time in the past

together and

ruler

and subject into
of great
desire.

existence.

Like

many

things

in

philosophy, the theory, though worthless as a record
of fact,
is

worth as a symptom of the direction
It testified to a growing belief that

of

human

the state existed to satisfy

human needs and could be shaped by human intention and volition. Aristotle's theory that the state exists by nature failed to satisfy
the

thought of the seventeenth century because seemed by making the state a product of nature to

it

re-

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
move
its

45

constitution beyond

human

choice.

Equally

significant

was the assumption of the contract theory

that individuals

by

their personal decisions expressing

their personal wishes bring the state into existence.

The

rapidity with which the theory gained a hold all over

western Europe showed the extent to which the bonds
of customary institutions

had relaxed

their grip.

It

proved that men had been so liberated from absorption
in larger

groups that they were conscious of themselves having rights and claims on their own

as individuals

account, not simply as members of a class, guild or
social grade.

Side

by

side with this political individualism

went a

religious

and moral individualism.

The metaphysical

doctrine of the superiority of the species to the individual, of the
ticular,

permanent universal to the changing parpolitical

was the philosophic support of
institutionalism.

and

ecclesiastical

The

universal church
beliefs

was the ground, end and limit of the individual's

and acts in

spiritual matters, just as the feudal hier-

archical organization was the basis, law
of his behavior in secular affairs.

and

fixed limit

The northern bar-

barians
classic

had never completely come under the sway of ideas and customs. That which was indigenous
was primarily derived from Latin sources
less externally

where

life

was borrowed and more or

imposed

in

Germanic Europe.

Protestantism marked the formal

46

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
Roman
ideas.

breaking away from the domination of
It effected liberation

of individual conscience and worinstitution claiming

ship from control

by an organized

to be permanent and universal.
that at the outset the
in

It cannot truly be said

new

religious

movement went

far
in

promoting freedom of thought and criticism, or

denying the notion of some supreme authority to which
individual intelligence
first

was absolutely

in bonds.

Nor

at

did

it

go far

in furthering tolerance or respect for

divergency of moral and religious convictions.
practically
institutions.
it

But

did tend to disintegration of established

By

multiplying sects and churches

it en-

couraged at least a negative toleration of the right
individuals to judge ultimate matters for themselves.

of

In

time, there developed a formulated belief in the sacred-

ness of individual conscience

and

in the right to freedom

of opinion, belief and worship.
It
is

unnecessary to point out how the spread of

this
it

conviction increased

p olitical

jndiyjdualism, or

how

accelerated the willingness of
ideas in science

men

to question received to think and observe

and philosophy

—

and experiment for themselves.
served to supply a

Religious individualism
initiative

much needed sanction to
all spheres,

and
re-

independence of thought in
ligious

even when

movements

officially

were opposed to such

free-

dom when

carried beyond a limited point.

The

greatest

influence of Protestantism was, however, in developing

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
the idea of the personality of every
endjnjhimjielf.

47
as an

human being

WhenTiuman

beings were regarded as

capable of direct relationship with God, without the
intermediary of any organization like the Church, and
the

drama

of sin, redemption and salvation was some-

thing enacted within the innermost soul of individuals

rather than in the species of which the individual was a

subordinate part, a fatal blow was struck at
trines

all

doc-

which taught the subordination of personality

a blow which had

many

political

reverberations

in

promoting democracy.

For when

in religion the idea of

the intrinsic worth of every soul as such was proclaimed,
it

was

difficult

to keep the idea from spilling over, so to

say, into secular relationships.

The absurdity
religion

is

obvious of trying in a few parain industry, politics

graphs to summarize movements

and

whose influence

is still

far from exhausted and

about which hundreds and thousands of volumes have
been written.

But

I shall count

upon your forbearance

to recall that these matters are alluded to only in order

to suggest some of the forces that operated to

mark out
is

the channels in which new ideas ran.

First, there

the

transfer of interest from the eternal and universal to

what

is

changing and

specific, concrete

—a
this,

movement
from the

thai showed

itself pracTicaTIy~in

carrying over of atten-

tion and thought from another world to

supernaturalism

characteristic

of

the

Middle Ages

48

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
activity

to delight in natural science, natural

and

natural intercourse.

Secondly, there

is

the gradual
class

decay of the authority of fixed institutions and distinctions and relations, and a growing belief

m

the

power of individual minds, guided by methods of observation, experiment

and

reflection, to attain the truths
life.

needed for the guidance of

The

operations and

results of natural inquiry gained in prestige and power

at

the

expense

of

principles

dictated

from high
truths

authority.

Consequently

principles

and

alleged

are

judged more and more by criteria of their
in experience
in

origin

and
and

their consequences of weal
less

and woe

experience,

by
is

criteria of sublime origin
of

from beyond everyday experience and independent
fruits in experience.

It

no longer enough for a

princitime.

ple to be elevated, noble, universal
It

and hallowed by
it

must present
and

its

birth certificate,

must show under
it

just what conditions of
erated,
it

human

experience

was gen-

must justify

itself

by

its

works, present

and potential. and

Such

is

the inner meaning of the modern

appeal to experience as an ultimate criterion of value
.

validity.

In the third place, great store

is

set

upon the idea of progress.
ahead of us not behind us.

The

future rather than the

past dominates the imagination.

The Golden Age lies Everywhere new possibilities beckon and arouse courage and effort. The great

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS

49

French thinkers of the later eighteenth century borrowed this idea from Bacon and developed it into the
doctrine of the indefinite perfectibility of
earth.

mankind on

Man

is

capable,

if

he will but exercise the re-

quired courage, intelligence and effort, of shaping his

own

fate.

Physical conditions offer no insurmountable

barriers.

In the fourth place, the patient and experi-

mental study of nature, bearing fruit in inventions

which control nature and subdue her forces to social
uses,
is

the method

by which progress
is

is

made.

Knowl-

edge

is

power and knowledge

achieved by sending the

mind

to

school to nature to learn her processes of

change.

In this lecture as in the previous one, I can hardly
close better

than by reference to the new responsibilities

imposed upon philosophy and the new opportunities
opened to
it.

Upon
up

the whole, the greatest effect of

these changes

to date has been to substitute an

Idealism based on epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, for the Idealism based
classic antiquity.

on the metaphysics of
(even

Earlier

modern philosophy

though uncon-

sciously to itself)

had the problem of reconciling the

traditional theory of the rational

and

ideal basis, stuff

and end of the universe with the new
vidual

interest in indiIt

mind and the new confidence
dilemma.

in its capacities.
it

was

in a

On

the one hand,

had no

intention

fiO

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
man
mind

of losing itself in a materialism which subordinated to physical existence and mind to matter just at the

—

especially

moment when

in actual affairs

man and

were beginning to achieve genuine

rule over nature.

On
it

the other hand, the conception that the world as

stood was an embodiment of a fixed and comprehensive
to those whose main

Mind or Reason was uncongenial
an attempt to remedy them.

concern was with the deficiencies of the world and with

The

effect of the objective

theological idealism that had developed out of classic metaphysical idealism was to make the mind submissive

and acquiescent.

The new

individualism chafed under
it

the restrictions imposed

upon

by the notion
all

of a uni-

versal reason which had once and for

shaped nature

and destiny.
In breaking away from antique and medieval thought,
accordingly, early modern thought continued the older
tradition of a

Reason that creates and constitutes
it

the

world, but combined

with the notion that this Reason

operates through the
tive.
all

This

is

the

human mind, individual or colleccommon note of idealism sounded by

the philosophies of the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries, whether belonging to the British school of

Locke, Berkeley and
Descartes.
strains

Hume

or the Continental school of

In Kant as everybody knows the two came together; and the theme of the formation of the knowable world by means of a thought that

SOME HISTORICAL FACTORS
operated exclusively through the
explicit.

51

human knower became

Idealism ceased to be metaphysical and cosmic

in order to

become epistemological and personal.
that this development represents merely
It tried, after all, to

It is evident

a transitional stage.

put the new

wine in the old bottles.

It did not achieve a free and

unbiased formulation of the meaning of the power to
direct

nature's

forces

through knowledge

—that

is,

purposeful, experimental action acting to reshape beliefs

and

institutions.

The

ancient tradition was

still

strong enough to project

itself

unconsciously into men's

ways of thinking, and to hamper and compromise the
expression of the really modern forces and aims.

Es-

sential philosophic reconstruction represents an attempt

to state these causes and results in a

way

freed from

incompatible inherited factors.

It will regard intellifinal

gence not as the original shaper and

cause of

things, but as the purposeful energetic re-shaper of

those phases of nature
well-being.

and

life

that obstruct social

\

It esteems the individual not as an exag^j
self-sufficient

geratedly

Ego which by some magic
is

creates the world, but as the agent who

responsible
intelligently

through

initiative,

inventiveness

and

directed labor for re-creating the world, transforming
it

into an instrument and possession of intelligence.

The

train
is

of ideas represented by the Baconian

Knowledge

Power thus

failed in getting

an emanci-

52

EECONSTEUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
These become hope-

pated and independent expression.
lessly entangled in standpoints

and prepossessions that
scientific tradition with

embodied a

social, political

and

which they were completely incompatible.
scurity, the

The
is

ob-

confusion of modern philosophy

the

product of

this

attempt to combine two things which

cannot possibly be combined either logically or morally.
Philosophic reconstruction for the present
is

thus the

endeavor to undo the entanglement and to permit the

Baconian aspirations
hindered expression.

to

come to a

free

and

unshall

In succeeding lectures we
it

consider the needed reconstruction as

affects certain

classic philosophic antitheses, like those of experience

and reason, the

real

and the

ideal.

But

first

we

shall

have to consider the modifying

effect exercised

upon

philosophy by that changed conception of nature, ani-

mate and inanimate, which we owe to the progress of
science.

CHAPTER

III

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR
Philosophy
starts

IN RECONSTRUCTION OF PHILOSOPHY
from some deep and wide way of
but
it

responding to the

difficulties life presents,
is

grows

only when material

at

hand for making
political

this practical

response conscious, articulate and communicable.

Ac-

companying the economic,
a
scientific revolution

and

ecclesiastical

changes which were alluded to in an earlier lecture, was

enormous in scope and leaving unbelief

changed almost no detail of

about nature, physical
transformation was

and human.
temper.

In part this

scientific

produced by just the change

in practical attitude
it

and

But

as

it

progressed,

furnished that change
its

an appropriate vocabulary, congenial to

needs, and

made

it articulate.

The advance

of science in its larger

generalizations

and

in its specific detail of fact supplied

precisely that intellectual equipment of ideas
crete

and con-

fact

that was needed in order to formulate,

precipitate,
sition.

communicate and propagate the new disposhall deal with those

Today, accordingly, we

contrasting conceptions of the structure and constitution of Nature, which

when they are accepted on the
53

54

RECONSTRUCTION IN

PHILO^HY
intel-

authority of science (alleged or real), form the
lectual

framework of philosophy.
conceptions
of

Contrasting

ancient

and

modern
in which

science have been selected.

For I see no way

the truly philosophic import of the picture of the

world painted by modern science can be appreciated
except to exhibit
it

in contrast with that earlier picture
its

which gave classic metaphysics
tion

intellectual foundain

and confirmation.

The world

which philoso-

phers once put their trust was a closed world, a world
consisting internally of a .limited

number of

fixed forms,

and having
of

definite
is

boundaries externally.

The

world
in-

modern science

an open world, a world varying

definitely
its

without the possibility of assignable limit

in

internal make-up, a world stretching externally.

beyond any
in

assignable bounds

Again, the world

which even the most intelligent men of olden times
thought they lived was a fixed world, a realm where
changes went on only within immutable limits of rest

and permanence, and a world where the fixed and unmoving was, as we have already noted, higher in quality
and authority than the moving and altering.
the third place, the world which
their
eyes,

And

in

men once saw with

portrayed in their imaginations and repeated in their plans of conduct, was a world of a
limited

number of

classes,

kindsj

forms, distinct
distinct)

in

quality (as kinds

and

species

must be

and

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR
arranged
inferiority.
in

55

a

graded

order

of

superiority

and

It

is

not easy to recall the image of the universe which
in the

was taken for granted
of
its

world tradition.

In spite
dialecti-

dramatic rendering (as in Dante), of the

cal elaborations of Aristotle

and

St.

Thomas,

in spite of

the fact that
three

it

held men's minds captive until the last
its

hundred years, and that

overthrow involved a

religious upheaval, it is already dim, faded

and remote.
it is

Even

as

a separate and abstract thing of theory
1

not easy to recover.,

As something
tails

pervasive, interwoven with all the de-

of reflection

and observation, with the plans and
back again.

rules of behavior, it is impossible to call it

Yet, as best we can, we need to put before our minds a
definitely

enclosed universe, something which can be
literal

called

a universe in a
its

and

visible sense,

having the

earth at

fixed

and unchanging centre and at a
heavenly arch of fixed stars

fixed circumference the

moving
all

in

an eternal round of divine ether, hemming in

things and keeping
earth,

them forever at one and
is

in order.

The
est,

though at the centre,

the coarsest, gross-

most material,

least significant

and good (or perIt
is is

fect) of the parts of this closed world.

the scene

of

maximum

fluctuation

and

vicissitude.

It

the least

rational,
it

and therefore the

least notable, or knowable;

offers the least to reward contemplation, provoke

56

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
Between
this grossly

admiration and govern conduct.
material centre and

the immaterial, spiritual

and

eternal

heavens

lie

a definite series of regions of moon, planets,

sun, etc., each of which gains in rank, value, rationality

and true being as
the heavens.

it is

farther from earth
is

and nearer
its

Each

of these regions

composed of

own appropriate

stuff of earth, water, air, fire in

its

own dominant degree, until we reach the heavenly firmament which transcends
energy called ether.
all these principles,

being con-

stituted, as was just said, of that immaterial, inalterable

Within

this tight

and pent

in universe,

changes take

place of course.
of fixed kinds
;

But they are only of a small number
fixed limits.
It

and they operate only within

Each kind
is

of stuff has its

own appropriate motion.
move downward.

the nature of earthly things to be heavy, since they

are gross, and hence to

Fire and
to

superior things are light and hence
their proper place
;

move upward

air rises only to the plane of the

planets, where it then takes its

back and forth motion
is

which naturally belongs to

it,

as

evident in the winds
all

and

in

respiration.

Ether being the highest of

physical things has a purely circular movement.
daily return of the fixed stars
is

The

the closest possible

approximation to eternity, and to the self-involved revolution of

mind upon

its

own

ideal axis of reason.

the earth in virtue of

its

earthly nature

—

Upon
its

or rather

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR
lack of virtue
aimless

57

—

is

a scene of mere change.

Mere

flux,

and meaningless, starts at no

definite point

and

arrives at nothing,

amounts to nothing.

Mere changes

of quantity, all purely mechanical changes, are of this
kind.
sea.

They are like the shiftings of the sands by the They may be sensed, but they cannot be " noted "
;

or understood

they lack fixed limits which govern them.

They are
accident.

contemptible.

They

are casual, the sport of

Only changes which lead to some defined or
account

fixed out-

come of form are of any account and can have any

—any

logos or reason

—made

of them.

The

growth of plants and animals
kind of change which
is

illustrates the highest

possible in the sublunary or
definite fixed

mundane
oysters,

sphere.

They go from one
man.

form

to another.

Oaks generate only oaks, oysters only
only

man

The
in,

material

factor

of

mechanical production enters

but enters in as acci-

dent to prevent the full consummation of the type of the
species,

and to bring about the meaningless variations

which diversify various oaks or oysters from one another; or in extreme cases to produce freaks, sports,

monsters, three-handed or four-toed men.
accidental

Aside from

and undesirable variations, each individual
like

has a fixed career to pursue, a fixed path in which to
travel.

Terms which sound modern, words

poten-

tiality and development abound in Aristotelian thought,

58

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
into his

and have misled some into reading

thought

modern meanings.
in classic their context.

But

the significance of these words
is

and medieval thought

rigidly determined

by

Development holds merely of the course
only a

of changes which takes place within a particular member of the species.
It
is

name for the

predeIt

termined movement from the acorn to the oak tree.

takes place not in things generally but only in some

one of the numerically insignificant members of the oak
species.

Development, evolution, never means, as
science, origin of

in

new forms, a mutation from an old species, but only the monotonous traversing of a So potentiality previously plotted cycle of change.
modern
never means, as in modern
of
invention,
life,

the possibility of novelty,

of

radical

deviation,

but

only

that

principle in virtue of which the acorn becomes the oak.

Technically,
opposites.

it is

the capacity for

movement
;

between-

Only the cold can become hot
;

only the dry

can become wet

only the babe can become a

man

;

the
in-

seed the full-grown wheat

and so

on.

Potentiality

stead of implying the emergence of anything novel means

merely the facility with which a particular thing
peats the recurrent processes of
its

re-

kind,

and thus

becomes a

specific
all

case of the eternal forms in and

through which

things are constituted.
infinite

In spite of the almost

numerical diversity of

individuals, there are only a limited

number of

species,

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR
kinds or sorts.

59

And

the world

is

essentially a world

which

falls into sorts; it is

pre-arranged into distinct

classes.

Moreover, just as we naturally arrange plants
series,

and animals into

ranks and grades, from the
all

lower to the highest, so with

things in the universe.

The

distinct classes to which things belong

by

their

very nature form a hierarchical order.
castes in nature.

There are

The

universe

is

constituted on an
Species,

aristocratic, one can truly say a feudal, plan.
classes

do not mix or overlap

—

except in cases of acciOtherwise, everything

dent,

and to the

result of chaos.

belongs in advance to a certain class, and the class has
its

own

fixed place in the hierarchy of Being.
is

The

universe

indeed a tidy spot whose purity

is

interfered

with only

by those

irregular changes

in

individuals

which are due to the presence of an obdurate matter
that refuses to yield
itself

wholly to rule and form.

Otherwise

it is

a universe with a fixed place for everyits place, its

thing and where everything knows

station
techni-

and

class,

and keeps

it.

Hence what are known

cally as final and formal causes
efficient

are supreme, and

causes are relegated to an inferior place.
is

The

so-called final cause

just a

name

for the fact that
class or sort

there

is

some

fixed

form characteristic of a
as their end

of things which governs the changes going on, so that

they tend toward

it

and goal, the
region

fulfilment
is

of their true nature.

The supralunar

the end

60
or

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
final

cause of the proper movements of air and
;

fire

the earth of the motions of crass, heavy things
of the acorn ; the mature
nal.

the oak

form

in general of the germi-

The "
it

efficient

cause," that which produces
is

and

in-

stigates a

movement

only some external change as

accidentally gives a kind of push to an immature,
it

imperfect being and starts
fected or fulfilled form.

moving toward
final

its

per-

The

cause

is

the per-

fected form regarded as the explanation or reason of

prior changes.

When

it is

not taken in reference to the

changes completed and brought to rest in it, but in itself it is the " formal cause " The inherent nature or character which " makes " or constitutes a thing
:

what
as
,

it is

so far as

it

truly

is,

namely, what

it is

so far
all

it

does not change.

Logically and practically

of

the traits which have been enumerated cohere.

Attack

one and you attack
all

all.

When any
why

one

is

undermined,

go.

This

is

the reason

the intellectual modifica-

tion of the last few centuries
revolution.

may

truly be called a

It has substituted a conception of the world

differing at every point.

It

makes

little

matter at what

point you commence to trace the difference, you find
yourself carried into all other points.

Instead of a closed universe, science

now

presents us

with one infinite in space and time, having no limits here

or there, at this end, so to speak, or at that, and as

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR
infinitely

61
it is infinite

complex in internal structure as

in extent.

Hence

it is also

an open world, an

infinitely

variegated one, a world which in the old sense can

hardly be called a universe at
far-reaching that
in
it

all; so multiplex

and

cannot be summed up and grasped

any one formula.
omnipresent.
is

And change

rather than fixity

is

now a measure of "
is

reality " or energy of being ; change

The laws

in which the

modern man

of science

interested are laws of motion, of generation

and consequence.

He

speaks of law where the ancients
is

spoke of kind and essence, because what he wants
correlation of changes,

a

an

ability to detect

one change

occurring in correspondence with another.

He does

not

try to define and delimit something remaining constant
in change.

a constant order of change. And while the word "constant" appears in both statements, the meaning of the word is not the
tries to describe

He

same.

In one case, we are dealing with something con-

stant in existence, physical or metaphysical; in the

other case, with something constant in function and
operation.

One

is

a form of independent being; the

other

is

a formula of description and calculation of

interdependent changes.

In

short,

classic

thought

arranged order of classes

a feudally or kinds, each " holding
accepted

from a superior and
and service to an

in turn giving the rule of conduct
inferior.

This trait

reflects

and

62

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

parallels

most closely the social situation we were conWe have a fairly definite sidering at the last hour.
principle, the principle of kinship
is

notion of society as organized upon the feudal basis.

The family
and
scale.
less in

is

strong,

especially

this true as

we ascend

in the social

At the lower
the mass.
is

end, individuals

may

be lost more or

Since all are parts of the

common
is

herd, there

nothing especial to distinguish their birth.
kinship at once marks a group
it distinction,

But among

the privileged and ruling class the case

quite different.
off externally

The

tie of

and gives

and

internally

holds

all its

members together.

Kinship, kind, class,

genus are synonymous terms, starting from social and
concrete facts and going to the technical

and

abstract.

For kinship
individuals,

is

a sign of a

common

nature, of something

universal and permanent running through all particular

and giving them a real and objective unity.
really,

Because such and such persons are kin they are

and not merely conventionally, marked
having something unique about
it.

off into

a class

All contemporary
in-

members are bound into an objective unity which
cludes ancestors and descendants

and excludes

all

who

belong to another kin or kind.

Assuredly this parcel-

ling out of the world into separate kinds, each having
its qualitatively distinct

nature in contrast with other
individuals
to-

species,

binding numerically distinct

gether,

and preventing

their diversities

from exceeding

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR
fixed

68

bounds,

may

without exaggeration be called a pro-

jection of the family principle into the world at large.

In a feudally organized society, moreover, each kinship

group or

species occupies a definite place.
specific

It

is

marked by the possession of a
fers

rank higher or

lower with respect to other grades.

This position conit

upon

it

certain privileges, enabling

to enforce

certain claims
tailing

upon those lower
certain services

in the scale

and en-

upon

it

and homage

to be ren-

dered to superiors.
to speak,
is

The

relationship of causation, so
Influence, power, proceeds

up and down.

from above

to below; the activities of the inferior are
literally, to

performed with respect, quite

what

is

above.
in

Action and reaction are far from being equal and
opposite directions.
All action
is

of one sort, of the

nature of lordship, and proceeds from the higher to
the lower.

Reaction

is

of the nature of subjection and

deference and proceeds from lower to higher.
classic

The

theory of the constitution of the world corre-

sponds point by point to this ordering of classes in a
scale of dignity

and power.

A third trait assigned by historians to feudalism is that
the ordering of ranks centres about

armed

service

and

the relationship of
afraid that

armed defense and protection. I am what has already been said about the paralcosmology with social organization may
if

lelism of ancient

seem a fanciful analogy; and

a comparison

is

also

64

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
in this last regard, there will be
is

drawn

no doubt

in
is

your minds that a metaphor
truly the case
if

being forced.

Such

we take the comparison too literally.
confine our attention to the notion

But not
of rule

so, if

we

and command implied in both. Attention has already been called to the meaning that is now given
"the term law

—a constant relationship among changes.

Nevertheless,
events,

" we often hear about laws which " govern and it often seems to be thought that phenomena

would be utterly disorderly were there not laws to
keep them in order.

This

way

of thinking

is

a survival
neces-

of reading social relationships into nature

—not

sarily a feudal relationship, but the relation of ruler

and ruled, sovereign and subject.
to a
is

Law

is

assimilated

command or

order.

If the factor of personal will

eliminated (as it was in the best Greek thought)
the idea of law or universal
is

still

impregnated with the

sense of a guiding

and ruling influence exerted from
it.

above on what

is

naturally inferior to

The

universal

governs as the end and model which the artisan has in mind " governs " his movements. The Middle Ages

added to

this

Greek idea of control the idea of a
will;
if

command proceeding from a superior
fulfilment of

and hence
to

thought of the operations of nature as

they were a

a task

set

by one who had authority

direct action.

The

traits of the picture of

nature drawn by modern

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR
science

65

fairly

spring by

contrast

into

high

relief.

Modern

science took its first step

when daring astrono-

mers abolishedJbhe distinction of high, sublime and ideal
forces operating in the heavens

from lower and material
events.

forces

actuating

terrestrial

The supposed

heterogeneity of substances and forces between heaven

and earth was denied.

It

was asserted that the same
is

laws hold everywhere, that there

homogeneity of

material and process everywhere throughout nature.

The remote and esthetically sublime is to be scientifically described and explained in terms of homely familiar events and forces. The material of direct handling and observation is that of which we are surest it is the
;

better known.

Until we can convert the grosser and
observations of far-away things in

more

superficial

the heavens into elements identical with those of things
directly at hand, they

remain blind and not understood.

Instead of presenting superior worth, they present only
problems.
challenges.

They are not means of enlightenment but The earth is not superior in rank to sun,
is

moon and
existences.

stars, but it

equal in dignity, and

its

occur-

rences give the key to the understanding of celestial

Being at hand, they are also capable of
which can be

being brought under our hand; they can be manipulated, broken up, resolved into elements

managed, combined at
net result

will in old

and new forms.

The

may

be termed, I think, without any great

66

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
democracy of individual rank for the feudal system of an ordered

'forcing, the substitution of a

facts equal in

.gradation of general classes of unequal rank.

One important incident of the new science was the
destruction of the idea that the earth
the universe.
is

the centre of

When
it

the idea of a fixed centre went,

there went with

the idea of a closed universe and a

circumscribing heavenly boundary.
just because
esthetic
its

To

the Greek sense,

theory of knowing was dominated by
the
finite

considerations,

was

the

perfect.

Literally, the finite

was the

finished,

the ended, the

completed, that with no ragged edges and unaccountable
operations.

The

infinite
it

or limitless was lacking

in

character just because
thing, it

was

in-finite.

Being every-

was nothing.

It was unformed and chaotic,

uncontrolled and unruly, the
deviations

source of incalculable
feeling that as-

and accidents.

Our present

sociates infinity with boundless

power, with capacity

for expansion that knows no end, with the delight in a

progress that has no external limit, would be incomprehensible were
it

not that interest has shifted from

the esthetic to the practical ;

from

interest in beholding

a harmonious and complete scene to interest in trans-

forming an inharmonious one.
the authors
of the

One has only

to read

transition period,

say Giordano

Bruno, to

realize

what a pent-in, suffocating sensation
finite

they associated with a closed,

world, and what a

THE SCIENTIFICH^ACTOR
feeling of exhilaration, expansion
sibility

67

and boundless posthought of a world
time, and

was aroused

in themfiby the

infinite

in stretch of space~

and

composed

internally of infinitesimal infinitely

numerous elements.

That which the Greeks withdrew from with repulsion
they welcomed with an intoxicated sense of adventure.

The

infinite

meant,

it teas true,

something forever un-

traversed even-by thought, and hence something forever

unknown
ing.

matter how great attainment in learnBut this " forever unknown " instead of being

—no

chilling

and repelling was now an inspiring challenge and an assurance of inexhaustprogress.

to ever-renewed inquiry,
ible possibilities of

The student
as of geometry.

of history

knows

well that the Greeks

made great progress

in the science of
first sight, it

mechanics as well

At

appears strange that
little

with this advance in mechanics so

advance was

made

in the direction of

modern

science.
it

The seeming
in

paradox impels us to ask why
remained a separate science,
description
the

was that mechanics
it

why

was not used

and explanation of natural phenomena after

manner of Galileo and Newton.
social

The answer

is

found in the

parallelism

already mentioned.

Socially speaking,

machines, tools, were devices em-

ployed by artisans.

The

science of mechanics

had

to

do with the kind of things employed by human mechanThey were at the ics, and mechanics were base fellows.

68

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
how could
light

lower end of the social scale, and

on the
appli-

heavens, the highest, be derived from them?
cation of

The
to

considerations

of

mechanics

natural

phenomena would moreover have implied an interest in the practical control and utilization of phenomena
which was totally incompatible with the importance
attached to final causes as fixed determiners of nature.
All the scientific reformers of the sixteenth

and

seven-

teenth centuries strikingly agree in regarding the doctrine of final causes as the cause of the failure of science.

Why?

Because this doctrine taught that the processes

of nature are held in bondage to certain fixed ends which

they must tend to realize.
ing strings
limited
;

Nature was kept

in leadof a

it

was cramped down to production
of stereotyped results.

number

Only a com-

paratively small
into being,

number of things could be brought

and these few must be similar to the ends
of inquiry

which similar cycles of change had effected in the past.

The scope

and understanding was

limited to

the narrow round of processes eventuating in the fixed

ends which the observed world offered to view.
best, invention

At
of
of

and production of new and

results

by use

machines and tools must be restricted to articles
transient dignity
bodily, not intellectual, use.

When

the rigid clamp of fixed ends was taken

off

fjromja&ture, observation

and imagination were emanci-

pated, and experimental control for scientific and prac-

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTOR
tical

69

purposes enormously stimulated.

Because natural

processes were no longer restricted to a fixed

number

of immovable ends or results, anything might conceiv-

ably happen.

It

was only a question of what elements
Immediately, mechanics ceased

could be brought into juxtaposition so that they would

work upon one another.
to be a separate science

and became an organ for

at-

tacking nature.
ley

The mechanics

of the lever, wheel, pul-

and inclined plane told accurately what happens
in space are

when things

used to move one another

during definite periods of time.

The whole

of nature

became a scene of pushes and

pulls, of cogs

and

levers,

of motions of parts or elements to which the formulae of

movements produced by well-known machines were

directly applicable.

The banishing of ends and forms from the universe has seemed to many an ideal and spiritual impoverishment.

certain school of contemporary psychology uses the term " rationalization " to denote those mental mechan-

isms

by which we unconsciously put a better face on our

conduct or experience than facts justify.
ourselves to ourselves

We

excuse

order into that of which

by introducing a purpose and we are secretly ashamed. In
has often tended
toi

like fashion, historic rationalism

use Reason as
ics.

an agency of

justification

and apologetevils

It has

taught that the defects and

of actual

experience disappear in the

" rational whole " of things
Or, as was noted by

that things appear evil merely because of the partial,

incomplete nature of experience.

Bacon, " reason " assumes a false simplicity, uniformity

and universality, and opens for science a path of
This course results in
intellectual irre-

fictitious ease.

sponsibility

and neglect:

—

irresponsibility because ra-

tionalism assumes that the concepts of reason are so

and so far above experience that they need and can secure no confirmation in experience. Neglect, because this same assumption makes men careself-sufficient

98'
less

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
about concrete observations and experiments.

Con-

tempt for experience has had a tragic revenge in experience;
it

has cultivated disregard for fact and this

disregard has been paid for in failure, sorrow and war.

The dogmatic

rigidity of Rationalism

is

best seen in

the consequences of Kant's attempt to buttress an otherwise chaotic experience with pure concepts.

He

set

out with a laudable attempt at restricting the extrava-

gant pretensions of Reason apart from experience.
called his philosophy critical.

He

But because he taught
and

that the understanding employs fixed, a priori, concepts,
in order to introduce connection into experience

thereby

make known objects

possible (stable, regular

relationships

of qualities), he

developed in

German

thought a curious contempt for the living variety of
experience and a curious overestimate of the value of

system, order, regularity for their
practical
peculiarly

own
in

sakes.

More

causes

were

at

work

German regard

for drill,

producing the discipline, " order "

and

docility.

But Kant's philosophy served to provide an intellectual justification or " rationalization " of subordination of individuals to fixed and ready-made universal, " principles," laws. Reason and law were held

reason came into experience from without and above, so law had to come into
as
life

to be synonyms.

And

from some external and superior authority.

The

EXPERIENCE AND REASON
practical correlate to absolutism
inflexibility
is

99

rigidity, stiffness,

of disposition.

When Kant

taught that

some conceptions, and these the important ones, are a
priori, that

they do not arise in experience and cannot

be verified or tested in experience, that without such

ready-made injections into experience the latter
anarchic

is

and

chaotic,

he

fostered

the

spirit

of

absolutism, even

though technically he denied the possiHis successors were true to
his spirit

bility of absolutes.

rather than his letter, and so they taught absolutism
systematically.
tific

That

the

Germans with

all their scien-

competency and technological proficiency should " have fallen into their tragically rigid and " superior
style of

thought and action (tragic because involving
understand the world in which they

them
lived)

in inability to
is

a

sufficient lesson of

what may be involved

in a

systematical denial of the experimental character of
intelligence

and

its

conceptions.

By common
apologetic
;

consent, the effect of English empiricism

was sceptical where that of German rationalism was
it

undermined where the latter

justified.

It

detected accidental associations formed into customs

under the influence of

self-

or class-interest

where

German

rational-idealism discovered profound meanings

due to the necessary evolution of absolute reason. The modern world has suffered because in so many matters
philosophy has offered
it

which, not recognizing the rule of unity, assert themselves independently

and make

life

a scene of contention

and discord.
hand, since

Ultimate and true Being on the other
changeless
it is

it is

is

Total, All-Comprehensive

knows only harmony, and therefore enjoys complete and eternal Good. It is
Since

and One.

One,

it

Perfection.

Degrees of knowledge and truth correspond with degrees of reality point

by

point.

The higher and more
Since the world of beis

complete the Reality the truer and more important the

knowledge that refers to

it.

coming, of origins and perishings,
Being,
it

deficient in true

cannot be known in the best sense.
its flux

To know it

means to neglect

and alteration and discover

some permanent form which limits the processes that

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
alter in time.

109

The acorn undergoes a
is

series of

changes

these are knowable only in reference to the fixed
of the

form

oak which

the same in the entire oak species in

spite of the numerical diversity of trees.

Moreover, this

form

limits the flux of

growth at both ends, the acorn
it.

coming from the oak as well as passing into

Where

such unifying and limiting eternal forms cannot be detected, there is

mere aimless variation and fluctuation,
is

and knowledge

out of the question.

On

the other
is

hand, as objects are approached in which there

no

movement at
tive, certain,

all,

knowledge becomes really demonstra-

perfect

—truth pure and unalloyed.
known than
the earth,

heavens can be more truly
the

The God

unmoved mover than the heavens.
this fact follows the superiority of

From

contempla-

tive to practical

knowledge, of pure theoretical specula-

tion to experimentation,

and to any kind of knowing
in things or that induces
is

that depends

upon changes
It

change in them.
ing, noting.

Pure knowing
is

pure beholding, viewitself.

complete in
;

It looks for

nothing beyond

itself

it

lacks nothing and hence has no
its

aim or purpose.
for being.

It

is

most emphatically

own excuse
is

Indeed, pure contemplative knowing
self-enclosed
it is

so

much the most truly

and

self-sufficient

thing in the universe that

the highest and indeed

the only attribute that can be ascribed to God, the

Highest Being in the scale of Being.

Man

himself

is

110

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
moments when he attains to purely

divine in the rare

self-sufficient theoretical insight.

In contrast with such knowing, the so-called knowing of the artisan is base. He has to bring about changes
in things, in

wood and

stone,
is

and

this fact is of itself

evidence that his material

deficient in Being.
is

What
it is

condemns

his

knowledge even more
its

the fact that

not disinterestedly for

own

sake.

It has reference to
It
its

results to be attained, food, clothing, shelter, etc.
is

concerned with things that perish, the body and
It thus has

needs.
testifies

an ulterior aim, and one which

itself

to imperfection.

every sort, indicate lack.
desire

For want, Where
all

desire, affection of

there

is

need and

—

as in the case of
is

practical knowledge and

activity

—there

incompleteness

and

insufficiency.

While

civic

or political and moral knowledge rank

higher than do the conceptions of the artisan, yet intrinsically considered they are

a low and untrue type.
is, it

Moral and
plies needs

political action

is

practical; that

im-

and

effort to satisfy them.

It has

an end

beyond

itself.

Moreover, the very fact of association
it

shows lack of self-sufficiency ;
others.

shows dependence upon

Pure knowing

is

alone solitary, and capable of

being carried on in complete, self-sufficing independence.
"""

In short, the measure of the worth of knowledge ac-

cording to Aristotle, whose views are here summarized,
_is

the degree in which

it is

purely contemplative.

The

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
highest degree
is

111

attained in knowing ultimate Ideal

Being, pure Mind.
because
it

This

is

Ideal, the

Form

of Forms,

has no lacks, no needs, and experiences no
It has no desires because in
it all

change or variety.
desires are
is

consummated.

Since

it is
;

perfect Being,

it

perfect

Mind and
ideality.

perfect Bliss

—

the

acme

of ration-

ality
is

and

One point more and
reality

the argument

completed.
this

The kind

of knowing that concerns itself

with

ultimate

(which
is

is

also

ultimate

ideality) is philosophy.

Philosophy

therefore the last_

and highest term

in

pure contemplation.

Whatever

may
ophy

be said for any other kind of knowledge, philosis

self-enclosed.

It has nothing to do beyond

itself; it

has no aim or purpose or function

—except

to

be philosophy

—that

is,

pure, self-sufficing beholding of
is

ultimate reality.

There

of course such a thing as

philosophic study which falls short of this perfection..

Where

there

is

learning, there

is

change and becoming.
is,

$ut

the function of study and learning of philosophy
it,

as Plato put

to convert the eye of the soul from

dwelling contentedly
the inferior realities

upon the images

of things,

upon

that are born and that decay,

and to lead
Being.
It

it

to the intuition of supernal and eternal
the mind of the knower
it
is

Thus

transformed.

becomes assimilated to what

knows.

V
Neo-

Through a

variety

of

channels,

especially

Platonism and St. Augustine, these ideas found their

112

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
into

way

Christian

theology;

and great scholastic

thinkers taught that the end of

man

is

to

know True
True Being
and

Being, that knowledge
is

is

contemplative, that

pure Immaterial Mind, and to know

it is Bliss

Salvation.

While

this

knowledge cannot be achieved
aid, yet so

in this stage of life

nor without supernatural
it

far as

it is

accomplished
essence

assimilates the

human mind
salvation.

to

the divine

and so constitutes

Through

this taking over

of the conception of knowl-

edge as Contemplative into the dominant religion of

Europe, multitudes were affected who were totally innocent of theoretical philosophy.

There was bequeathed
axiom the
a mere beholding
of

to generations of thinkers as an unquestioned

idea that knowledge

is

intrinsically

or viewing of reality-l^the spectator conception
knowledge.

So deeply engrained was

this idea that it

prevailed for centuries after the actual progress of

had demonstrated that knowledge is power to transform the World, and centuries after the practice of effective knowledge had adopted the method of
science

experimentation.

Let us turn abruptly from this conception of the measure of true knowledge and the nature of true philos-

ophy
days

to the existing practice of knowledge.
if

Nowa-

a man, say a physicist or chemist, wants to know something, the last thing he does is merely to contemplate.

He

does not look in however earnest and

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
he will detect
its fixed

118

prolonged way upon the object expecting that thereby

and characteristic form.

He

does

not expect any amount of such aloof scrutiny to reveal
to

him any

secrets.

He

proceeds to do something, to

bring some energy to bear upon the substance to see

how

it

reacts; he places

it

under unusual conditions in

order to induce some change.

While the astronomer

cannot change the remote stars, even he no longer merely
gazes.

If he cannot change the stars themselves, he can

at least

by

lens

and prism change

their light as it

reaches the earth; he can lay traps for discovering

changes which would otherwise escape notice.
of taking

Instead

an antagonistic attitude toward change and
to the stars because of their divinity and
is

denying

it

perfection, he

on constant and

alert

watch to

find

some change through which he can form an inference
as to the formation of stars

and systems of

stars.
fall

Change

in short is

no longer looked upon as a

from grace, as a lapse from reality or a sign of imperfection of Being.
to find

Modern

science

no longer

tries

some fixed form or essence behind each process
Rather, the experimental method
fixities

of change.

tries to

break down apparent

and to induce changes.
to sense, the form of

The form that remains unchanged
seed or tree,
is

regarded not as the key to knowledge

of the thing, but as a wall, an obstruction to be broken

down.

Consequently the

scientific

man

experiments with

114
this

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
and that agency applied to
something begins to
this
;

and that condition
is,

until

happen

until there

as

we

say, something doing.

He

assumes that there
is

is

change

going on

all the time, that there

movement within
to bring

each thing in seeming repose ; and that since the process
is

veiled

from perception the way to know
In short, the thing which
is

it is

the thing into novel circumstances until change becomes
evident.
is

to be accepted and

paid heed to

not what

is

originally given but that

which emerges after the thing has been set under a
great variety of circumstances in order to see how
behaves.
it

Now
human
It

this

marks a much more general change
nothing
it

in the

attitude than perhaps appears at first sight.
less

signifies
it

than that the world or any
is

part of

as

presents itself at a given time

accepted
It
is

or acquiesced in only as material for change.

accepted precisely as the carpenter, say, accepts things
as he finds them.

If he took

them as things to be

observed and noted for their own sake, he never would be a carpenter. He would observe, describe, record tho
structures, forms

and changes which things

exhibit to

him, and leave the matter there.

the changes going on should present
so

much

the better.

some of him with a shelter, But what makes the carpenter a

If perchance

builder

is

the fact that he notes things; not just as

objects in themselves, but with reference to

what he

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
has in mind.

115

wants to do to them and with them; to the end he
Fitness to effect certain special changes
is

that he wishes to see accomplished

what concerns

him

in the

wood and
is

stones and iron which he observes."

His attention

directed to the changes they undergo

and the changes they make other things undergo so that
he

may

select that

combination of changes which
result.

will

yield

him his desired

It

is

only by

these processes

of active manipulation of things in order to realize his^

purpose that he discovers what the properties of things
are.

If he foregoes his

own purpose and

in the

name

of a

meek and

humble subscription to things as they

" really are " refuses to bend things as they " are "

own purpose, he not only never achieves his purpose but he never learns what the things themselves are. They are what they can do and what can be done with
to his

them,

—things that can be found by

deliberate trying.

The outcome
is

of this idea of the right

way

to

know

a profound modification in man's attitude toward the natural world. Under differing social conditions, the
older or classic conception sometimes bred resignation and submission; sometimes contempt and desire to

escape; sometimes, notably in the case of the Greeks, a keen esthetic curiosity which showed itself in acute

noting of

all

the traits of given objects.

In fact, the

whole conception of knowledge as beholding and noting enjoyis fundamentally an idea connected with esthetic

116
raent
ful

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
and appreciation where the environment
life is
is

beauti-

and

serene, and with esthetic repulsion and
life is

depreciation where

troubled, nature morose and

hard.
i

But

in the degree in

which the active conception
is

of knowledge prevails,

and the environment

regarded

.as

something that has to be changed in order to be truly

known, men are imbued with courage, with what
^almost be termed an aggressive attitude
ture.

may

toward na-

jected to

The latter becomes plastic, something to be subhuman uses. ; The moral disposition toward
is

change

deeply modified.

This loses

its

pathos,

it

ceases to be haunted with melancholy through suggest-

ing only decay and Joss.
of

Change becomes
Change

significant
it

new

possibilities

and ends to be attained;
is

becomes

prophetic of a better future.

associated with

progress rather than with lapse and

fall.
is

Since changes
to learn enough

are going on anyway, the great thing

about them so that we be able to lay hold of them and turn them in the direction of our desires. Conditions

and events are neither to be
acquiesced in
;

fled

from nor passively

they are to be utilized and directed.

They

are cither obstacles to our ends or else means for their

accomplishment.

to be contemplative

In a profound sense knowing ceases and becomes practical.

Unfortunately men, educated men, cultivated men in particular, are still so dominated by the older conception of an aloof

and

self-sufficing reason

and knowledge

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
They think they are sustaining the cause of

117

that they refuse to perceive the import of this doctrine.

impartial,

thorough-going and disinterested reflection when they
maintain the traditional philosophy of intellectualism
that
is,

of

knowing as something
in

self-sufficing

and

self-

enclosed. \jBtit

truth, historic intellectualism, the
is

spectator view of knowledge,
doctrine which

a purely compensatory
have
built'

men of an

intellectual turn

up to console themselves for the actual and
devoted.

social im-

potency of the calling of thought to which they are

Forbidden by conditions and held back by

lack of courage from

making

their knowledge a factor

in the determination of the course of events, they have

sought a refuge of complacency in the notion that knowing
is

something too sublime to be contaminated by con-

tact with things of change

and
a

practice.

They have
irresponsible

transformed
estheticism.^*

knowing

into

morally

The

true import of the doctrine of the
intelli-

operative or practical character of knowing, of
gence,
is

objective,

l-

It

means that the structures and
set

objects which science
to the things

and philosophy

up

in contrast

and events of concrete daily experience

do not constitute a realm apart in which rational contemplation

may

rest satisfied

;

it

means that they repremeans and
ideal
is

sent the selected obstacles, material

methods of giving direction to that change which

bound to occur anyway,

ir

118

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

human disposition toward the world does not mean that man ceases to have ideals, or ceases to be primarily a creature of the imagination. But it
This change of
does signify a radical change in the character and
function of the ideal realm which
'

man

shapes for himis

self, f

In the classic philosophy, the ideal world
a haven in which
it is

essen-

tially

man

finds rest

from the storms

of life;

an asylum in which he takes refuge from

the troubles of existence with the calm assurance that
it

alone
is

is

supremely

real.

When

the belief that knowl-

edge

active

and operative takes hold of men, the ideal
it is

realm

is

no longer something aloof and separate;

rather that collection of imagined possibilities
stimulates

that
still

men

to

new

efforts

and realizations.^ It

remains true that the troubles which men undergo are
the forces that lead them to project pictures of a better
state of things.
so that
it

But

the picture of the better

is

shaped

may become an
Hence,

instrumentality of action,

while in the classic view the Idea belongs ready-made in

a noumenal world. an idea

it

is

only an object of

personal aspiration or consolation, while to the modern,
is

a suggestion of something to be done or of
%**"

a way of doing.
\

^An
clear.

illustration

will,

perhaps,

make the

difference

an obstacle, a source of trouble. It separates friends and prevents intercourse. It isolates,
is

Distance

and makes contact and mutual understanding

difficult.

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
ness
;

119

This state of affairs provokes discontent and restlessit

excites the imagination to construct pictures of

a state of things where
juriously affected
out.

human

intercourse

is

not

in-

by

space.

Now

there are two ways

One way
all

is

to pass

from a mere dream of some
is

heavenly realm in which distance

abolished and by

some magic

friends are in perpetual transparent
idle castleit

communication, to pass, I say, from some
building to philosophic reflection.
will

Space, distance,

then be argued,

is

merely phenomenal ; or, in a more
It
is

modern

version, subjective.

not, metaphysically

speaking, real.
gives
is

Hence the obstruction and
all

trouble

it

not after

" real " in the metaphysical sense
spirits,
is

of reality.

Pure minds, pure

do not

live in

a

space world; for them distance

not.

Their relationaffected

ships in the true world are not in
special

any way

by
is

considerations.

Their intercommunication

direct, fluent, unobstructed.

Does the

illustration involve

a caricature of ways of
all
it

philosophizing with which we are
it is

familiar?

But

if

not an absurd caricature, does

not suggest that
ideal

much of what philosophies have taught about the

and noumenal or superiorly real world, is after all, only casting a dream into an elaborate dialectic form
through the use of a speciously
scientific

terminology?
Practiis

Practically, the difficulty, the trouble, remains.
cally,

however

it

may

be "metaphysically," space

120
still

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
real:

—

it

acts

in

a definite objectionable way.
state of things.

Again,

man dreams

of some better

From troublesome fact he takes refuge in fantasy. But this time, the refuge does not remain a permanent
and remote asylum.

The idea becomes a standpoint from which to examine existing occurrences and to see if there is not among them something which gives a hint of how communication at a distance
utilized as

can be

effected,

something to be

a medium of speech at long range.
still

The

sug-

gestion or fancy though

ideal

is

treated as a

possibility capable of realization in the concrete natural

world, not as a superior reality apart from that world.

As

such,

it

becomes a platform from which to scrutinize

natural events.
possibility,

Observed from the point of view of
disclose

this

things

properties hitherto unde-

tected.

In the light of these ascertainments, the idea
less

of some agency for speech at a distance becomes

vague and floating:

it

takes on positive form.

This
is

action and reaction goes on.

The

possibility or idea

employed as a method for observing actual existence; and in the light of what is discovered the possibility
takes on concrete existence.
idea, a fancy, It becomes less of a mere a wished-for possibility, and more of an

actual fact.

Invention proceeds, and at last we have

the telegraph, the telephone, first through wires, and

then with no artificial medium.

The

concrete environ-

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
ment
is

121
it

transformed

in

the desired direction;
in fancy.

is

idealized in fact

and not merely
its

The

ideal is

realized

through

own use

as a tool or

method of

inspection, experimentation, selection

and combination

of concrete natural operations.

S*
results.

^JLet us pause to take stock of
accessible only to reason

The

division

of the world into two kinds of Being, one superior,

and

ideal in nature, the other

inferior, material, changeable, empirical, accessible

to

sense-observation, turns inevitably into the idea that

knowledge

is

contemplative in nature.

It assumes
all

a
to

contrast between theory

and practice which was

the disadvantage of the latter.

But

in the actual course

of the development of science, a tremendous change has

come about.
be dialectical

When

the practice of knowledge ceased to

and became experimental, knowing became
about certain changes.

preoccupied with changes and the test of knowledge be-

came the

ability to bring

Know-

ing, for the experimental sciences,

means a certain kind

of intelligently conducted doing; it ceases to be con-

templative and becomes in a true sense practical.
this implies that philosophy, unless it
is

Now

to undergo a

complete break with the authorized spirit of science,

must also alter
nature;
it

its

nature.

It

must assume a practical

must become operative and experimental. And we have pointed out what an enormous change this
transformation of philosophy entails in the two con-

122

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

ceptions which have played the greatest role in historic

philosophizing

—

the

conceptions
*

of

the " real "

and

" ideal " respectively.

The former
it

ceases to be some-

thing ready-made and final;

becomes that which has

to be accepted as the material of change, as the obstructions

and the means of certain
ideal

specific d££J£ed changes.

The

and rational also ceased to be a separate

ready-made world incapable of being used as a lever to
transform the actual empirical world, a mere asylum

from empirical

deficiencies.

They

represent intelligently

thought-o ut possjbjlitks_gj£_theexistent world which may
'be

used as methods for making over and improving
Philosophically speaking, this
is

it.

the great difference

involved in the change from knowledge and philosophy
as contemplative to operative.

The change

does not

mean

the lowering in dignity of philosophy from a lofty
It signifies that

plane to one of gross utilitarianism.
the prime functionof philosophy
is

that of rationaliz-

ing the possibilities \i experience, especially collective

human
realized

experience,

ing

it.

y The scope of this ch ange may be by c onsideri n g how far we are from accomplishIn spite of inventions which enable men to use
still

the energies of nature for their purposes, we are

far from habitually treating knowledge as the method
of active control of nature

and

of experience.

We

tend

to think of

it

after the model of a spectator viewing a

finished picture rather

than after that of the

artist

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
producing the painting. J/Thus there arise
tions of epistemology with
all

123
the ques-

which the technical student

and which have made modern philosophy in especial so remote from the understanding of the everyday person and from the results
is

of philosophy

so

familiar,

and processes of

science.

For

these questions all spring

from the assumption of a merely beholding mind on one side and a foreign and remote object to be viewed and noted on the other. They ask how a mind and
world, subject

and object,

so separate

and independent
If

can by any possibility come into such relationship to

each other as to make true knowledge possible.

knowing were habitually conceived of as
hypothesis, or of invention guided
of some possibility, it
first effect
is

active

and

operative, after the analogy of experiment guided

by

by the imagination'

not too much to say that the
all

would be to emancipate philosophy from

the epistemological puzzles which
these all arise

now perplex

it.

For
mind

from a conception
to seize

of the relation of
in knowing,

and world, subject and object,
sumes that to know
is

which asis

upon what

already

m

i

existence. —-

"

Modern philosophic thought has been
between realist and
absolutist, that
idealist,

so preoccupied

with these puzzles of epistemology and the disputes

between phenomenalist and

many

students are at a loss to

know

what would be

left for

philosophy

if

there were removed

124

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

both the metaphysical task of distinguishing between the

noumenal and phenomenal worlds and the epistemological task of telling

independent object.

how a separate subject can know an But would not the elimination of
and more needed task?

these traditional problems permit philosophy to devote
itself
it

to a

more

fruitful

Would
and
suffers,

not encourage philosophy to face the great social

moral defects

and troubles from which hum anity

to concentrate its attention

and exact nature of these
jtro jecting

evils

upon clearing up the causes and ~upoIi developing a
;

clear idea of better social possibilities

in

short upon

an idea or

ideal which,|instead of expressing

the notion of another world or spine far-away unrealiz-l

ggsL-wmald be used as a bietjxacLof understandinf and ye ctrf yingyipeciflc socia l ills? |
able

This

is

a vague statement.

But note

in

the

first'

place that such a conception of the proper province of

philosophy where

it is

released
in line
first

from vain metaphysics
with the origin of phi-

and

idle

epistemology

is

losophy sketched in the
place, note
is

hour.

And

in the second

how contemporary

society, the world over,

more general and fundamental enlightenment and guidance than it now possesses. I have tried to show that a radical change of the conception of
in need of

knowledge from contemplative to active
result of the

is

the inevitable

way in which inquiry and invention are now conducted. But in claiming this, it must also be

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
influenced for the
side of

125

conceded, or rather asserted, that so far the change has

most part only the more technical

human
arts.

life.

The

sciences

have created new

in-

dustrial

Man's physical command of natural
There
is

energies has been indefinitely multiplied.
trol of the sources of material

con-

wealth and prosperity.

What would

once have been miracles are

now

daily
air,

performed with steam and coal and electricity and

and with the human body.
optimistic

But there are few persons
and moral wel-

enough to declare that any similar command

of the forces which control man's social

fare has been achieved. \

Where

is

the moral progress that corresponds to

our economic accomplishments?
direct fruit

The

latter

is

the

of the revolution that has been wrought

in physical science.

But where is there a correspondNot only has the iming human science and art? provement in the method of knowing remained so far
mainly
limited

to technical

and economic matters.
it

but this progress has brought with
disturbances.

serious

new moral
classes,

I need only cite the late war, the problem

of capital

and labor, the relation of economic

the fact that while the new science has achieved wonders in medicine and surgery, it has also produced and spread occasions for diseases and weaknesses. These considerations indicate to us how undevelope d are o ur_jglitics, how~crude and primitive our educatio n, how pass ive and

126

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY

The causesr emain whi ch brought philoso phy into existence as an attempt to find an intelligent substitute for b lind custom aqd b lind impulse asTguid"es~ to life and conduc t! T he atte mpt has not
inert our morals.

been successfully accomplished.

Is there not reason for

believing tha t the release of philosophy

from itsourden

of sterile

metaphysics and

sterile

epistemology instead

of depriving philosophy of problems and subject-matter

would open a way to questions of the most per plexing
andthe most significa nt sort?. Let me specify one problem quite directly suggested

by

certain points in this lecture.

It has been pointed

out that the really fruitful application of the contemplative idea was not in science but in the esthetic It
is

field.

difficult

to imagine

any high development
is

of the

fine arts

except where there

curious and loving inirrespec-

terest in forms
tive of

and motions of the world quite
to which they

any use

may be

put.

And

it is

not too much to say that every people that has attained

a high

esthetic development has been a people in

which

the contemplative attitude has flourished the Hindoo, the medieval Christian.

—

as the Greek,

On the

other hand,

the scientific attitude that has actually proved itself in
scientific

progress

is,

as has been pointed out, a prac-

tical attitude.

It takes forms as disguises for hidden

processes.

Its interest in

change

is in

what
it

it

leads to,

what can be done with

it,

to what use

can be put.

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
While
it

127
is

has brought nature under control, there
its attitude

something hard and aggressive in

toward

nature unfavorable to the esthetic enjoyment of the
world.

Surely there

is

no more

significant question be-

fore the world than this question of the possibility

and

meth od of reconciliation o f the attitudes of practical
science

and contemplative esth etic appreciation.

With-

out the former,

man

will

be the sport and victim of

natural forces which he cannot use or control.

With,-

out the latter, mankind might become a race of economic

monsters, restlessly driving hard bargains with natufej.

and with one another, bored with
putting
it

leisure or capable of'

to use only in ostentatious display and ex-

travagant dissipation.
Like other moral questions, this matter
even political.
is

social

and

The western

peoples advanced earlier
its

on the path of experimental science and

applicaIt
is

tions in control of nature than the oriental.

not,

I suppose wholly fanciful, to believe that the latter have

embodied

in their habits of life

more of the contemplareligious temper,

tive, esthetic

and speculatively

and

the former
cal.

more

of the scientific, industrial

and practi-

This difference and others which have grown up
it is

around

pne barrier to easy mutual understanding,

and one source of misunderstanding.
which, then, makes

The philosophy
comprehend these

a serious effort to

respective attitudes in their relation

and due balance,

128

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
fail to

could hardly
profit

promote the capacity of peoples to

by one another's experience and to co-operate
effectually with one another in the tasks of fruit-

more

ful culture.

Indeed,

it is

incredible that the question of the rela-

tion of the " real "

and the "

ideal " should ever have

been thought to be a problem belonging distinctively to
philosophy.
all

The very

fact that this

most

serious of

human
is

issues has been taken possession of by philos-

ophy

only another proof of the disasters that follow

in the

wake

of regarding

knowledge and

intellect as

something self-sufficient. the " ideal " been so clamorous, so self-assertive, as at
the present time.

Never have the " real " and

And

never in the history of the world

have they been so far apart.

The world war was

car-

ried on for purely ideal ends:

—

for humanity, justice
alike.

and equal

liberty for strong
realistic

and weak

And

it

was carried on by

means of applied

science,

by

high explosives, and bombing airplanes and blockading
marvels of mechanism that reduced the world well nigh
to ruin, so that the serious-minded are concerned for

the perpetuity of those choice values
tion.

we

call civiliza-

The peace
name

settlement

is

loudly proclaimed in

the

of the ideals that stir man's deepest emo-

tions,

but with the most realistic attention to details of

economic advantage distributed in proportion to physical

power to create future disturbances.

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL
It
is

129

not surprising that some men are brought to
all

regard

idealism as a mere smoke-screen behind which

the search for material profit
carried on,

may

be more effectually
materialistic inter-

and are converted to the
" Reality "
is

pretation of history.
physical force

then conceived as
profit

and as sensations of power,

and

enjoyment; any politics that takes account of other
factors, save as elements of clever

propaganda and for

who have not become realistically enlightened, is based on illusions. But others are equally sure that the real lesson of the war is that humanity took its first great wrong step when
control of those

human

beings

it

entered upon a cultivation of physical science and

an application of the fruits of science to the improve-

ment of the instruments of
merce.

life

—industry

and comanimal

They

will sigh for

the return of the day when,
in

while the great

mass died as they were born
elect devoted themselves

fashion, the

few

not to science

and the material decencies and comforts of existence but to " ideal " things, the things of the spirit.

Yet the most obvious conclusion would seem to be the impotency and the harmfulness of any and every
ideal that is

proclaimed wholesale and in the abstract,

that

is,

as something in itself apart

from the

detailed
it

concrete existences whose moving possibilities
bodies. The true moral would seem to lie forcing the tragedy of that idealism which

emen-

in

believes

130
in

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
a spiritual world which exists in and by
realistic
itself,

and the tragic need for the most

study

of forces and consequences, a study conducted in a more scientifically accurate and complete manner than

that of the professed Real-politik.
realistic

For

it is

not truly

or scientific to take short views, to sacrifice the

future to immediate pressure, to ignore facts and forces

that are disagreeable and to magnify the enduring
quality of whatever falls in with immediate desire.
is

The thinking as a way of responding to difficulty. " solutions " alluded to do not get rid of the short-cut
conflict

of

it.

and problems; they only get rid of the feeling They cover up consciousness of it. Because the

conflict remains in fact

and

is

evaded in thought,

dis-

orders arise.

The
then
is

first

distinguishing characteristic

of thinking

facing the facts

—

inquiry, minute

and extensive

[scrutinizing,

observation.

Nothing has done greater

Tiarm to the successful conduct of the enterprise of
thinking (and to the logics which reflect and formulate
the undertaking) than the habit of treating observation
as something outside of

and prior to thinking, and

thinking as something which can go on in the head with-

out including observation of new facts as part of

itself.

Every approximation to such " thinking "
referred to.

is

really an

approach to the method of escape and self-delusion just
It substitutes

an emotionally agreeable and

rationally self-consistent train of meanings for inquiry
into the features of the situation which cause the trouble.
It leads to that

type of Idealism which has well been
It creates a class of

termed intellectual somnambulism.
" thinkers "

who are remote from practice and hence from testing their thought by application a socially

—

superior and irresponsible class.

This

is

the condition

causing the tragic division of theory and practice, and
leading to an unreasonable exaltation of theory on one

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION
side

141

and an unreasonable contempt for
current practice in
it

it

on the other.

It confirms

its

hard

brutalities

and

dead routines just because

has transferred thinking

and theory to a separate and nobler region.

Thus has

the idealist conspired with the materialist to keep actual
life

impoverished and inequitable.
isolation of thinking

The
facts

from confrontation with

encourages that kind of observation which merely
itself labori-

accumulates brute facts, which occupies

ously with mere details, but never inquires into their

meaning
it

and consequences

—a

safe

occupation,

for

never contemplates any use to be

made of

the ob-

served facts in determining a plan for changing the
situation.

Thinking which

is

a method of reconstruct-l

ing experience treats observation of facts, on the other

hand, as the indispensable step of defining the problem,
of locating the trouble, of forcing

home a

definite, in-

stead of a merely vague emotional, sense of what the
difficulty is

and where

it lies.

It

is

not aimless, random,

miscellaneous, but purposeful, specific
the character of the trouble undergone.
so to clarify the disturbed

and limited by

The purpose

is

and confused situation that
it

reasonable

ways

of dealing with

may

be suggested.

When
it
is

the scientific

man appears
is

to observe aimlessly,

merely that he

so in love with problems as
is

sources and guides of inquiry, that he

striving to turn

up a problem where none appears on the surface: he

142
is,

EECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
as

we say, hunting for trouble because of the had
in

satis-

faction to be

coping with

it.

"Specific and wide observation of concrete fact always,
then, corresponds not only with a sense of a
difficulty,

problem or

but with some vague sense of the meamrngj^i
is,

thejifficulty, that
in

of what
It
is

it

imports or

signifies

subsequent experience.

a kind of anticipation

or prediction of
of

what

is

coming.

We

speak, very truly,

impending trouble, and
is,

in observing the signs of

what

the trouble

we are at the same time expecting, foreframing an
the trouble
idea,
is

casting

—

in short,

becoming aware

of meaning.

When

not only impending

but completely actual and present, we are overwhelmed.

We do not think, but give way to
complete and developing,

depression.
is

The kind
is in-

of trouble that occasions thinking

that which
is

and where what

found

already in existence can be employed as a sign from

which to infer what

is

likely to come.

When we

intelli-

gently observe, we are, as we say apprehensive, as well
as apprehending.
still

We

are on the alert for something
di-

to come.

Curiosity, inquiry, investigation, are
is

rected quite as truly into what
as into

going to happen next
intelligent interest in

what has happened.
is

An

the latter

an

interest in getting evidence, indications,

symptoms for inferring the former.
tion and preparation.

Observation

is

diagnosis and diagnosis implies an interest in anticipa-

It makes ready in advance an

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION
attitude of response so that

143

we

shall not be

caught

unawares.

That which

is

not already in existence, that which

is

only anticipated and inferred, cannot be observed.

It

does not have the status of fact, of something given, a

datum, but of a meaning, an idea.
not fancies, framed by emotionalized

So far

as ideas are

memory

for escape

and refuge, they are precisely anticipations of some-|
thing
still

to

come aroused by looking

into the facts of

J

a developing situation.
iron, its color
is

The blacksmith watches

his!
it

and texture,

to get evidence of what
;

getting ready to pass into

the physician observes

his patient to detect

symptoms

of change in some definite

direction

;

the scientific

man

keeps his attention upon

his laboratory material to get a clue as to what will

happen under certain conditions.
observation
is

The very

fact that
evi-

not an end in

itself

but a search for

dence and signs shows that along with observation goes
inference,

anticipatory

forecast

—

in

short

an

idea,

thought or conception.

In a more technical context,
to see
fact

it

would be worth while

what

light this logical correspondence of observed

and projected idea or meaning throws upon certain traditional philosophical problems and puzzles, including that of subject and predicate in judgment, object and subject in knowledge, " real " and " ideal " generally.

But at

this time,

we must confine ourselves

to

144

RECONSTRUCTION IX PHILOSOPHY
in

pointing out that this view of the correlative origin

and function of observed fact and projected idea

experience, commits us to some very important conse-

quences concerning the nature of ideas, meanings, conceptions, or whatever

word may be employed to denote
Because they are sugor eventuate,

the specifically mental function.

gestions of something that

may happen
is

they are (as we saw in the case of ideals generally) plat-

forms of response to what

going on.

The man who
an automobile
;

detects that the cause of his difficulty is

bearing down upon him

is

not guaranteed safety
too
late.

he

may

have

made

his observation-forecast

But

if his

anticipation-perception comes in season, he has

the basis for doing something which will avert threaten-

ing disaster.
f

Because he foresees an impending

result,

he

may do something

that will lead to the situation

eventuating in some other way.

All intelligent thinking

Wans
tion

from chance and

an increment of freedom in action an emancipafatality. " Thought " represents

—

the suggestion of a

way

of response that

is

different

from that which would have been followed

if intelligent

observation had not effected an inference as to the
future.

Now

a method of action, a mode of response, intended

to produce a certain result

—that

is,

to enable the black-

smith to give a certain form to his hot iron, the physician to treat the patient so as to facilitate recovery, the

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION
scientific

145
will

experimenter to draw a conclusion which

apply to other cases,
tative, uncertain
till

—

is

by the nature of the case ten-

tested

by

its results.

The

signifi-

cance of this fact for the theory of truth will be dis-

cussed below.

Here

it is

enough to note that notions,

theories, systems,
sistent

no matter how elaborate and self-con-

they are, must be regarded as hypotheses.

They

are to be accepted as bases of actions which test them,

not as finalities.
rigid

To

perceive this fact
It
is

is

to abolish

dogmas from the world.

to recognize that

conceptions, theories and systems of thought are always

open to development through use.
lesson that

It

is

to enforce the
quite as

we must be on the lookout

much

for indications to alter them as for opportunities to
assert them.

They

are tools.

As

in the case of all

tools, their value resides

not in themselves but in their

capacity to work shown in the consequences of their
use.

Nevertheless, inquiry

is

free only

when the

interest in
it

knowing

is

so developed that thinking carries with
itself,

something worth while for

something having

its

own
is

esthetic

and moral

interest.
final

Just because knowing

not self-enclosed and

but
is

is

instrumental to

reconstruction of situations, there
it

always danger that

will

be subordinated to maintaining some precon-

ceived

purpose or prejudice.
it

Then

reflection ceases to

be complete;

falls

short.

Being precommitted to

146

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
it is

arriving at some special result,

not sincere.

It

is

one thing to say that
itself,

all

knowing has an end beyond

and another thing, a thing of a contrary kind, to

say that an act of knowing has a particular end which
it is

bound, in advance, to reach.

Much

less is it true
it

that the instrumental nature of thinking means that
exists for the sake of attaining

some private, one-sided
set one's heart.

advantage upon which one has
limitation whatever of the end

Any
in the

means limitation
it is

thinking process
attain its full

itself.

It signifies that

does not

growth and movement, but

cramped,

impeded, interfered with.

The only
is

situation in which
is

knowing

is

fully stimulated

one in which the end

developed in the process of inquiry and testing.
Disinterested and impartial inquiry
is

then far from
irresponsible.
set

meaning that knowing
It

is
is

self-enclosed

and

means that there

no particular end

up

in

advance so as to shut in the activities of observation, forming of ideas, and application.
pated.
is

Inquiry

is

emanci-

It

is

encouraged

to>

attend to every fact that

relevant to defining the problem or need, and to follow
clue.

up every suggestion that promises a
to free inquiry are so
is

The

barriers

many and

so solid that

mankind

to be congratulated that the very act of investigation

is

capable of

itself

becoming a delightful and absorbing

pursuit, capable of enlisting on its side man's sporting
instincts.

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION
down
nant
to ends fixed

147

Just in the degree in which thought ceases to be held'

by

social custom, a social division

of labor
life

grows up.

Investigation has become a domi-

occupation for some persons.

Only super-

ficially,

however, does this confirm the idea that theory

and knowledge are ends in themselves.

They

are, rela-

tively speaking, ends in themselves for

some persons.
:

But these persons represent a

social division of labor

and their specialization can be trusted only when such
persons are in unobstructed co-operation with other
social occupations, sensitive to

others' problems

and

transmitting results to them for wider application in
action.

When

this social relationship of persons par-

ticularly

engaged

in carrying

on the enterprise of know-

ing

is

forgotten and the class becomes isolated, inquiry

loses stimulus

and purpose.

It degenerates into sterile

specialization, a kind of intellectual

busy work carried
Details are heaped

on by socially absent-minded men.

up

in the

name

of science, and abstruse dialectical de-

velopments of systems occur.

" rationalized
truth for
science
is

its

Then the occupation is " under the lofty name of devotion to own sake. But when the path of true
to

retaken these things are brushed aside and

forgotten.
ings of vain

They turn out
impartial, of

have been the toy-|

and irresponsible men.
disinterested

The only guarinquiry
to
the
is

antee
social

of

the

sensitiveness

the

inquirer

needs

148

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
problems
of

'and

those

with

whom he
is

is

asso-

ciated.

As

the

instrumental theory

favorable to high

esteem for impartial and disinterested inquiry, so, con-

trary to the impressions of some critics,
store

it
is

sets

much

upon the apparatus of deduction.

It

a strange

notion that because one says that the cognitive value of
conceptions, definitions, generalizations, classifications

and the development of consecutive implications
self-resident, that therefore

is

not

one makes light of the de-

ductive function, or denies its fruitfulness
sity.

and necesThe instrumental theory only attempts to state
is

with some scrupulousness where the value

found

and to prevent
It says that

its

being sought in the wrong place.
specific observations

knowing begins with

that define the problem and ends with specific observations that test a hypothesis for its solution.

But that

the idea, the meaning, which the original observations

suggest and the final ones test, itself requires careful
scrutiny and prolonged development, the theory would be the last to deny.

To say

that a locomotive

is

an

agency, that
ence and

it is

intermediate between a need in experi-

its satisfaction, is not to depreciate the worth of careful and elaborate construction of the locomotive, or the need of subsidiary tools and processes that are

devoted to introducing improvements into

its

structure.
is

One would rather say that because the locomotive

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION
intermediary in experience, not primary and not
it

149
final,

is

impossible to devote too

much care

to

its

con-

structive development.

Such a deductive science as mathematics represents
the perfecting of method.

:

That a method
itself as

to those conits

;

cerned with

it

should present
is

an end on

own account

no more surprising than that there
for making any tool.

should be a distinct business

Rarely are those who invent and perfect a tool those,

who employ

it.

There

is,

indeed, one

marked

difference

between the physical and the intellectual instrumentality.

The development of
by

the latter runs far beyond

any immediately

visible use.

The

artistic interest in

perfecting the method
sils

itself is

strong

—as the utenthis difference
is

of civilization

may

themselves become works of finest

art.

But from the practical standpoint

shows that the advantage as an instrumentality
the side of the intellectual tool.

on
not

Just because

it is

formed with a special application in mind, because
a highly generalized tool,
it
is

it is

the

more

flexible

in

adaptation to unforeseen uses.

It can be employed in

dealing with problems that were not anticipated.

The
does

mind

is

prepared

in

advance for

all sorts

of intellectual
it

emergencies,

and when the new problem occurs
till

not have to wait
ready.

it

can get a special instrument

More

definitely, abstraction

is

indispensable

if

one

150

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
is

experience

to be

applicable in other experiences.
in its totality
is

Every concrete experience
itself,
it

unique

;

it is

non-reduplicable.

Taken
it

in its full concreteness,

yields

no instruction,

throws no
that

light.

What
it

is is

called

abstraction means

some phase of
it

selected for~the sake of the aid

gives in grasping

something

else.

Take n_by
But viewed

itself, it is

a mangled frag-

me£tj3_pc^u^sub*titirt^-4arjh^jivm
it

whole from which

is

extract ed.

tele ologj cally or

pr actically,

it

represents the only waj[_jn__whichone experience can

be_madeof an y value for anolher

—the

only

way

in
is

which something enlightening can be secured.

What

called false or vicious abstractionism signifies that the

function of the detached fragment

is

forgotten and neg-

lected, so that it is esteemed barely in itself as some-

thing of a higher order than the
concrete from which
tionally, not
it

muddy and

irregular

was wrenched.

Looked at funcabstraction

structurally

and

statically,

means that something has been released from one experience for transfer to another.

Abstraction

is

liberation.

The more theoretical, the more abstract, an abstraction, or the farther away it is from anything experienced in
its

concreteness, the better fitted

it

is

to

deal with

any one of the
later

indefinite variety of things

that

may

present themselves.

Ancient mathematics and

physics were

ence than are modern.

much nearer the gross concrete experiFor that very reason they were

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION
more impotent
trol over

151

in affording

any

insight into

and conin

such concretes as present themselves

new

and unexpected forms.
Abstraction and generalization have always been
recognized as close kin.
the negative
It

may

be said that they are

and positive

sides of the

same function.
it

Abstraction sets free some factor so that
used.

may

be

Generalizatio n

is

the use.

I t carries over and
in the dark. in

extends.
It is

I t is alway s in

some sense a leap

an adventure.
is

There can be no assurance

advance that what

extracted from one concrete can
Since

be fruitfully extended to another individual case.
these other cases are individual

and concrete they must
is

be dissimilar.

The
it is

trait of flying
is

detached from

the concrete bird.
to the bat,

This abstraction

then carried over

and

expected in view of the application

of the quality to have some of the other traits of the
bird.

This

trivial

instance indicates the essence of
also illustrates the riskiness of the

generalization,

and

proceeding.

It transfers, extends, applies, a result of

some former experience to the reception and interpretation of

a new one.

Deductive processes

define, delimit,

purify and set in order the conceptions through which
this enriching

and

directive

operation

is

carried on,

but thev cannot, however perfect, guarantee the outcome.
*
.,

<^' ,v

The pragmatic

value of organization

,

.

.

.

is

so conspicu-

152

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
life

ously enforced in contemporary

that

it

hardly seems

necessary to dwell upon the instrumental significance of

and systematization. When the existence of qualitative and fixed species was denied to be the supreme object of knowledge, classification was often
classification

regarded, especially by the empirical school, as merely a
linguistic device.

It

was convenient for memory and

communication to have words that sum up a number of
particulars.
speech.

Classes were supposed to exist only in

Later, ideas were recognized as

a kind of

teral-

tium quid between things and words.

Classes were

lowed to exist in the mind as purely mental things.

The
here.

critical disposition of empiricism is well exemplified

To

assign any objectivity to classes was to enbelief in eternal species

courage a

and occult

essences

and to strengthen the arms of a decadent and obnoxious science

— a point of view

well illustrated in Locke.
effort, enabling

General ideas are useful in economizing

us to condense particular experiences into simpler and

more

easily carried bunches

and making

it

easier to

identify

new observations.

So far nominalism and conceptualism
that
kinds
exist

—the

theory

only

in

words

or in ideas

—was

on the right track.

It emphasized the

teleological

character of systems and classifications, that they exist
for the sake of

economy and

efficiency in

reaching ends.

But

this

truth was perverted into a false notion, because

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION
the active
ignored.

158

and doing

side of experience

was denied or

Concrete things have ways of acting, as

many

ways of acting as they have points of interaction with
other things.

One thing

is

callous, unresponsive, inert
;

in the presence of

some other things

it is alert,

eager,
in

and on the aggressive with respect to other things;
a third case,
it is

receptive, docile.

Now

different

ways
be

of behaving, in spite of their endless diversity,

may

classed together in view of
end.

common

relationship to

an

No

sensible person tries to

do everything.

He
have

has certain main interests and leading aims he makes his behavior coherent and effective.

by which

To

an aim
basis
is

is

to limit, select, concentrate, group.

Thus a

furnished for selecting and organizing things

according as their ways of acting are related to carrying forward pursuit.
ently

Cherry trees

will

be differartists,

grouped by woodworkers, orchardists,

scientists

and merry-makers.

To

the

execution of

different

purposes different ways of acting and reare important.

acting on the part of trees
classification

Each

may

be equally sound when the difference

of ends

is

borne in mind.
is

Nevertheless there

a genuine objective standard for

the goodness of special classifications.

One

will further

the cabinetmaker in reaching his end while another will

hamper him.
in carrying

One

classification will assist the botanist

on fruitfully

his

work of

inquiry,

and an-

154

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
The
teleological

other will retard and confuse him.

theory of classification does not therefore commit us
to the notion that classes are purely verbal or purely

mental.

Organization

is

no more merely nominal or

mental in any art, including the art of inquiry, than
it
is

in

a department store or railway system.
of

The

necessity

execution

supplies

objective

criteria.

Things have to be sorted out and arranged so that
their

grouping

will

promote

successful

action are

for

ends.

Convenience, economy and

efficiency

the

bases of classification, but these things are not restricted to verbal

communication with others nor to
they

inner

consciousness;

concern

objective

action.

They must take

effect in the world.

At

the same

time,

a classification

is

not a bare

transcript or duplicate of some finished and done-for

arrangement pre-existing in nature.

It

is

rather a

repertory of weapons for attack upon the future and
the unknown.

For

success, the details of past knowl-

edge must be reduced from bare facts to meanings, the
fewer, simpler

and more extensive the
in scope to

better.

They

must be broad enough

prepare inquiry to

cope with any phenomenon however unexpected.

They

must be arranged so as not to overlap, for otherwise

when they are applied to new events they interfere and produce confusion. In order that there may be
ease and economy

of

movement

in dealing with

the

LOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION
selves,

155

enormous diversity of occurrences that present them-

we must be able to move promptly and

definitely

from one tool of attack to another.

In other words,

our various classes and kinds must be themselves classified in
cific.

graded

series

from the larger to the more
streets,

spe-

There must not only be

but the streets

must be laid out with reference to facilitating pa ssage
from any one tn «.ny nthpr a wildernes s of by -waya
ordered
sys tem
in

Cla ssification tra nsforms
ivrpnyi'pnr»n

—j»te—a
as

well-

of

road s, promoting transportation
in inquir y.

and communication

As soon

men beg in

to take foresight f or the future
selve s in

and to prepare them an d prosper-

advance to meet

it

effectively

ously, the deductive operations
in Importance.

and

their results gain

In every practical enterprise there are

goods to be produced, and whatever eliminates wasted
material and promotes economy and efficiency of pro-

duction

is

precious.
is

Little time

left to

speak of the account of

the',

nature of truth given by the experimental and functional type of logic.

emotions, paralyzing religion and distorting art.
the liberation of capacity

When

no longer seems a menace to
institutions,

organization

and

established

something

that cannot be avoided practically and yet something that
is

a threat to conservation of the most precious

values of the past,

when the liberating of human capacity

operates as a socially creative force, art will not be a

luxury, a stranger to the daily occupations of making

a living.

Making a

living economically speaking, will
life

be at one with making a

that

is

worth

living.

And

when the emotional force, the mystic force one might
say, of communication, of the miracle of shared life

and shared experience
ness
in

is

spontaneously

felt,

the hard-

and crudeness of contemporary life will be bathed the light that never was on land or sea.

212

RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY
They can-

Poetry, art, religion are precious things.

not be maintained by lingering in the past and futilely
wishing to restore what the movement of events in
science, industry

and

politics has destroyed.

They are

an out-flowering of thought and desires that unconsciously converge into a disposition of imagination as a
result of thousands

and thousands of daily episodes and

They cannot be willed into existence or The wind of the spirit bloweth coerced into being. where it listeth and the kingdom of God in such things But while it is imdoes not come with observation.
contact.
possible to retain

and recover by deliberate

volition old
it

sources of religion and art that have been discredited,
is

possible to expedite the development of the vital

sources of a religion and art that are yet to be.

Not
day

indeed by action directly aimed at their production, but

by substituting

faith in the active tendencies of the

for dread and dislike of them, and by the courage of
intelligence

to

follow

whither

social

and

scientific

changes direct us.
|

We are weak
is

today

in ideal

matters

because intelligence

divorced from aspiration.

The

bare force of circumstance compels us onwards in the
daily detail of our beliefs